


The Inheritance of an Heir

by Canadiantardis



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Angst, Angst and Feels, Ashen-Pale Vacillation, Ashen-Red Vacillation, Blackmail, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Character Death, Death Threats, Drug Use, Fever, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Forced Marriage, Forced Relationship, Illnesses, Kidnapping, Mind Control, Multi, Non-Consensual, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Consensual Kissing, Non-Consensual Touching, Not sure if graphic but lots of violence, Other, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Sopor Slime, Sorry Not Sorry, Time Skips, if you count supor slime as a drug, mostly anyway some will change, slightly anyway, so many relationships, their classes are what they are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-20
Updated: 2016-03-08
Packaged: 2018-04-10 09:27:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 24
Words: 24,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4386539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canadiantardis/pseuds/Canadiantardis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Egbert is the Heir of a large inheritance that many would desire. So a Lord kidnaps the Heir to try to claim it, but John's Matesprit and Moirail want him back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kidnapped

**Author's Note:**

> Author's notes: In this fic, trolls and humans have been living in harmony for centuries, and humans use troll romance because they like it more than human romance.  
> Caliborn is a human, but all the trolls are trolls.

“Well, I don’t think I can help you with any-” John said before he felt lips press against his and his entire being jerked back, but the lord had a hand at the back of John’s head, keeping him in place.

John grunted, trying to twist and turn away from the man’s lips, but couldn’t find any leverage against the older man.

He was finally released, and he shrunk back, feeling sick.

“I will get your inheritance, Heir. Whether by you falling for me or by force. No one would take the word of a child, anyway.” He grinned, his single golden tooth glinting in the torchlight.

The man left the small room John was trapped in with a chuckle, leaving John wrapping his arms around himself.

_How did everything go so wrong?_ He thought as he sunk onto the thin cot in the corner of the room.

*Three weeks ago*

“Oh my god, will you hurry the fuck up, John?” His matesprit shouted from way ahead.

“Hang on, I’m trying!” John called back, stumbling over the brambles along the path.

He and his matesprit were going for a picnic with John’s moirail, who happened to be Karkat’s kismesis, but the journey was a long one, or so John thought.

He finally reached the clearing where Dave and Karkat stood, already bickering about nothing. John sighed as he watched the two argue for a few minutes before he decided to end the fight so they could actually eat.

“Okay, I don’t know about you two, but I’m starving.” He piped in, smiling when the two stopped fighting and blinked at John as if they had just realized he was there.

“Dude, when did you get here?” Dave asked, shoulder bumping his moirail before heading for the bag he brought with him full of food. John didn’t understand why Dave brought the whole thing himself since Karkat and he could help, but knew it was in Dave’s character to do things like that.

“Yeah, I thought I would never fucking see you for hours with how slow you were going.” Karkat complained, but took John’s hand as he walked to a clear spot and sat down with him. “What took so long, anyway?”

“The path was being a little difficult for me, no big deal.” The Heir mumbled, hoping his matesprit wouldn’t catch it.

“The path? Were you dragging your feet on the ground?” Karkat laughed, and John blushed.

“Shaddup.” He shoved Karkat, but his matesprit only laughed more.

Dave returned with the bag of food before halting and looking at the two of them with a blank look from behind his shades, but John knew he was questioning them like always.

“Got the food.” He deadpanned, holding the bag up as he sat in front of the other two.

Karkat and John calmed enough to grab some bread and were about to eat when Dave asked something.

“So, what did John do this time, Karkles?”

“Dave!” John whined, trying to drown out Karkat’s answer, but the knight was much louder than him.

“He said the path up here was too hard for him!” Karkat laughed.

“Kar!” John slapped his shoulder, his face darkening.

“Aw, c’mon, John, we don’t mean anything by it.” Dave said, papping John’s leg a couple times. “Do we, Karkles?”

“If you call me Karkles one more time.” Karkat threatened, but Dave waved it away.

“Not now, I want to eat.” He said, munching on his bread.

The three ate and talked relatively pleasantly in John’s opinion, as Dave and Karkat would keep their trash talking to a minimum. It was a great time, and John enjoyed the peace around him. With his father prepping him with the knowledge of what he would inherit, John barely got to leave the manor anymore, so finding the excuse to leave and be with his quadrantmates just made him feel giddy inside.

Dave and Karkat began cleaning up, and soon it turned into a competition to see who could clean up the area the fastest. John watched on with a grin, happy to see them shit talking as they worked.

They finally finished and began walking back down the path to where their horses were tied. The two knights continued to bicker over who won ahead of John as he started to catch on fallen branches again.

He had just stumbled over another branch when he heard Dave call to him.

“John? Are you really moving as slow as a slug? C’mon, we got the horses ready already.” He called, and John just saw the nose of a horse.

“Okay, I’m coming, I’m-” His call was cut off as a hand appeared out of nowhere and wrapped itself around his mouth. Before he could react, another hand wrapped around his chest and dragged him backwards.

John tried to fight off whoever was behind him before he felt something poke painfully in the side of his neck, and his body fell limp.

He was still conscious when a bag was put over his head and he heard a distant shout.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: My first long fic for Homestuck. I've been wanting to write a multi chapter fic for Homestuck, but just couldn't figure out a good plot.  
> It took a while to figure how to get the quadrants right, and realized John would sometimes feel the need to be ashen with Dave and Karkat's relationship, so that's why its a slight ashen-red.


	2. Missing

“John? John!” Karkat shouted, frowning when he didn’t hear his matesprit answer him.

He glanced at Dave and noticed he was frowning as well, slight as it was.

“Hey, man, come on, you better not be playing us again.” Dave called, walking a few steps back up the path. “It’s not funny, where are you, slow poke?”

Karkat stayed by the horses, trying to think of John not answering as him trying to prank them like he did when they had been six and a half sweeps. He listened as Dave’s footsteps receded and before he knew it, Karkat heard nothing but the sounds of the wildlife.

Dave returned with a deeper frown, worry clear on his face for once.

“Where is he?” Karkat asked.

“Couldn’t find him. But, I, uh.” Dave rubbed his neck, a habit Karkat knew that meant he needed his help but didn’t want to ask for it. “It might take longer if it’s just me looking for him, so.”

“I’m going, just need to keep these creatures here.” Karkat turned his back on Dave as he began to tie the horses again to the branch.

“Okay, well, I’m going back to looking on the path. Maybe he’s just being a dick and hiding from us.” Dave said, and Karkat heard him walking away.

_Hopefully._ Karkat thought as he turned back to help his kismesis look for their other quadrantmate.

They searched the path as well as the clearing, but found no sign of the Heir, and both knights began to worry for John. It wasn’t like the Heir to just leave them without saying anything, and even if he was trying to play a trick on them, it never lasted so long.

It was on their way back to the horses that Karkat noticed something at the edge of the path. He waved to Dave and pointed at the edge of the path. Karkat hadn’t realized it at first because he had thought it was from another group that had used the path before, but he realized they hadn’t been there when they had gone up the path.

The footprints were large, like those of a tall human man or a highblood, and they mixed with the smaller prints of a younger human. The more Karkat looked at the footprints, the more he saw a scuffle.

He saw Dave step in front of him and crouch by the prints, lifting his shades as he searched.

“What can you guess happened? These still look fresh.” Karkat commented when Dave finally stood again.

“Can’t really tell much besides a very one sided fight.” Dave turned to Karkat, lowering his shades. “And it’s like the smaller person disappeared after reaching the very edge of the path. I’m guessing whoever was fighting picked them up.”

“Do you know if one of them was John?”

“Not really sure, but the smaller, just because of how fresh they are, might be John. Man, what happened?” He muttered at the end, as if asking the ghosts or himself.

“Can we still follow the tracks?” Karkat asked, looking around past the path at the forest that surrounded them for miles.

“I don’t think so.” Dave crouched again as he followed the tracks for a couple feet. “They just stop around here. Don’t know how, but they do.”

“What the hell?” Karkat muttered, pushing Dave away so he could get a good look, and realizing he was right.

There were no more tracks after a couple feet away from the path, as if whoever had taken John had just vanished into thin air.

Karkat groaned. “Argh, what are we supposed to do now?”

“Don’t look at me, I don’t know.” Dave said testily, crossing his arms in annoyance.

“Well, who the fuck else can I ask, dumbass?” Karkat growled.

Dave was silent, and Karkat could tell he was glaring at him before he spoke. “Nope, no black flirting right now. We are missing our quadrantmate.”

Karkat opened his mouth to protest before glowering at Dave, knowing he was right.

“We should go to Sir Egbert and tell him. He might be able to help us.” Dave said, taking one last look at the path before hurrying to the horses.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Even when John isn't there, he is practically their Auspice(I will never know how to spell it properly). Also Dave is so cool, shades were made during the medieval period.


	3. The Maid's Job

John woke up on a horse with a bag over his head. He could just see light barely stream through the fabric, but he had no idea what was around him. Wiggling around, he felt another presence holding him in place, but nothing about the presence felt familiar.

He tried to buck off the horse and away from the person, but was just pushed further on the horse by the unknown person.

Frowning, John stilled, unsure how to escape, and decided to try to figure out where they were going, but he only felt the horse bounce him, causing him to lose all sense of direction.

He didn’t know how long they had been riding, but finally the horse began to slow to a steady trot until it stopped completely. John squirmed as the person lifted him up and slung him over their shoulder. He yelled at the person but was ignored.

They seemed to enter a building, as John heard the footsteps sound different from dirt to wood flooring. He heard a few doors open before he was dropped on a mushy mattress. The bag was removed from his head and he saw his kidnapper, looking into the eyes of a highblood woman. She reminded John of an old friend he had had until her big mouth got her killed.

She smirked at him before turning away, closing the door to wherever John was. He looked around and saw it was a tiny room, with only the mattress John was sitting on in the corner of the room. There was no wardrobe, no table, nothing, and the room seemed big enough to at least hold a single bookcase. There wasn’t even a window he could look out at, unless John counted the window on the door.

John got up quickly, reaching the door, but unable to open it. He jiggled the handle in an attempt to get out, but nothing worked.

John gave up with a sigh, going back to the mattress and sitting on it, shuffling himself until his back reached the corner of the room, drawing up his legs.

His mind tried to understand what happened. He remembered being on a type of double date with Dave and Karkat, and had been about to head back home when…

“Oh my god.” John whispered. He realized that neither Dave or Karkat knew what happened to him. They must think he was playing a childish prank on them.

He hoped they would know where he had gone, and that they would be able to save him soon.

Jane

Jane gave a weary sigh as she entered the large house of Lord Caliborn, already hoping the day was over even though the sun hadn’t even risen just yet.

Her day began the way it always had, with her cleaning the various chambers the Lord had, keeping a hawk’s eye out for said Lord. She hated every single moment she was in his presence, and would normally hide from him until he left the room.

It was around the middle of the day when she distantly heard the side door for servants and the lower class to enter open and she heard someone walking into the house.

Curious, she trained her ear to the direction of the steps and followed, before they stopped for a few seconds, and a door was opened and closed. Jane backpedaled when she heard the footsteps walking back her way.

She barely made it into another room and pretended to be cleaning the room when the person passed. Jane looked up and saw an older troll walk past gracefully, reminding Jane of nobility. She looked back down as the troll had turned her head Jane’s way.

When the troll woman was gone, Jane stopped and let out a breath, before frowning to herself. _Why would Lord Caliborn have a troll enter his house?_ She thought. _He detests all trolls and their ways of life, for some reason._

Jane tried to force that thought out of her head, and she walked back out of the room, again curious about where the troll had gone to. She guessed the direction she thought she had last heard the footsteps before they had gone back, and found herself at a locked door with a small window.

She stood tall, just able to peek through the window but could not see much in the room as it was very dark, the light on her side unable to pass through the window very well. She saw a bundle near the corner but nothing else, so she shrugged before returning to work, hoping to finish before it was the Lord’s dinner time. Every time she was forced to stay that long, she was ordered to serve the Lord. It still made her queasy being around the unusually large man, and it was worse when he was eating.

She was just about to finish when one of the Lord’s slaves came to her and told her she was to see the Lord in the main room.

With a worried sigh, she pat her apron to get some of the dust and wrinkles off before heading to the main room, curtsying to Lord Caliborn when she saw him looking at her.

“Ah, there you are, girl.” He smirked. “I have something to show you.”

He turned without Jane saying a word and began walking through the halls, Jane trying hard to keep up with the large strides. She worried her lip, fearing she had somehow done a poor job cleaning a room.

But Lord Caliborn past every room Jane had cleaned and she soon realized they were heading to the room Jane had thought the troll had gone to earlier in the day.

They stopped at the door, Lord Caliborn smiling cruelly at Jane before telling her to open the door. She frowned, remembering it had been locked before, but did as he said, finding it was now unlocked. She slowly opened the door, looking between the Lord and the dark and empty room.

Or at least she thought it had been empty, as a person rushed out of the room into her, causing both to fall, the person on top of her.

Jane cried out in surprise, trying to get the person to get off her before seeing the face. She recognized the boy, even with him being several years younger than her. She had seen him around Prince Dirk’s palace on occasion, normally with the younger siblings of Dirk and other trolls.

“John?” She asked and he stilled, and before either realized it, the Lord had grabbed John by the back of his neck, jerking him back up.

Jane got up slowly, warily looking between the Lord and John. “My Lord?”

“He will be here for a while, Jane. And you are to clean this room only.” The Lord gripped John’s neck, causing the boy to cry out, hands scrambling to push the fingers off his neck to no avail. “And if you breathe a word of this outside these walls or to another servant, you know what will happen?”

Jane took a small step back, her head down. “No, my Lord?”

“Your little girl and everyone you care for might end up choking in their own blood.” Lord Caliborn said, his expression sending shivers throughout Jane’s entire being. “Do you understand, girl?”

Jane nodded quickly, looking back at the floor. “Yes, my Lord. I understand.”

John continued to fight against Lord Caliborn’s grip before he lost his balance when the Lord threw him back into the room, producing a key and locking the door. He turned and gave the key to Jane.

“Do not let him out for any reason, do not speak to him, he is not there at all, you got it, girl?” Lord Caliborn told her, grabbing her chin and forcing her to meet his eyes.

“Yes, my Lord.” She whimpered, terrified by how close he was and by the implications he was telling her.

“Good. Now you are free to leave.” He finally released her chin and she all but fled the Lord’s house, close to tears.

As soon as she left the sight of the house, her knees grew weak, and she stumbled her way to the first person she could think of.

It took longer than it would normally take her to reach Old Unicorn Inn, the tavern her matesprit’s family owned with her, but she finally reached the front door, shakily walking to where she normally found her matesprit.

“Janey! What took so long? Were you forced to feed the Lord?” Roxy turned at the door opening with a large smile on her face before it disappeared as she took in Jane’s expression. “What the hell happened to you?”

Jane felt like a fish as she tried to figure out what she could tell her matesprit. Realizing she could tell her nothing, she tried to lie.

“Nothing, it was just a long day cleaning.” She sighed, slumping into a nearby chair. “I thought I would never get out fast enough.”

“Janey? You sure you’re okay? You look really bad.” Roxy sat next to Jane, cupping her cheek gently to get her to look at her. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Jane forced a smile and leant into Roxy’s hand. “Of course I know. I’m fine, just tired. I’ll be fine in an hour or something. Don’t you have work to do?”

Roxy’s face transformed from one of worry to one of absolute shock. She quickly retracted her hand and jumped to her feet.

“Oh my god! Why did no one come to get me!?” She cried as she ran to the main room where the customers were.

Jane sighed again, sinking into the seat further, trying to mentally figure out what she was going to do.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Hey, it's Jane! And isn't Caliborn just creepy af?  
> Also, ages for everyone, cuz they are not all the same age. John and the Beta Kids are around 16-18 years old. The Alpha kids are are much older, around 23 or so. The Trolls that I have in here are also 16-18(so 8 or 9 sweeps, right?), and Caliborn is around his mid thirties.


	4. A Fruitless Week

“You are certain he was not simply hiding further out in the woods?” Sir Egbert asked carefully.

“We are certain, Sir. We found traces of a possible scuffle before even those just simply disappear.” Dave said formally to his moirail’s father.

“Why did you not search farther into the woods?” The man asked, and Dave had to fight himself not to roll his eyes as he never wore his shades in Sir Egbert’s presence.

“We thought it had been best to inform you and to ask what we should do.” He replied.

John’s father crossed his arms, thinking. Dave took the time to look around the room again, wishing Karkat was the one to tell him everything. But no, the lazy troll said he had another person to talk to.

“I do not think I know what we can do. I will have to talk to the king to see if he would be willing to help.” Sir Egbert said, and he dismissed Dave before he could say anything.

Dave shook his head, knowing his father would not be helping. He was a fat-ass and never helped anyone, not even his own children. He just hoped Dirk would be a different king from their father.

Dave straightened as he had an idea, before hurrying to the palace, hoping he could find his brother somewhere in the maze that was the palace.

It took him a couple days’ ride to reach the castle. He found his brother in the middle courtyard, where the swordfighting practices normally were for him and his matesprit. He heard the sounds of metal meeting metal before he reached the courtyard, and knew they were practicing again. _They must have just started, because normally…_ Dave stopped as he stopped hearing the sounds of swords fighting and smirked. _There we go._

He found his brother and his matesprit taking a break with fighting with swords and took up fighting with their tongues. He waited a couple minutes to see if either would notice him but neither seemed to be aware of reality.

“Ahem.” He coughed loudly, smirking at how Dirk and his matesprit visibly jumped a good foot in the air. “Sorry, did I intrude?”

Dirk glared at Dave quickly before clearing his throat. “No, we were just taking a break. What do you want?”

“John might be missing.” Dave said simply.

“What do you mean? Didn’t you and his matesprit just go on that double date thing?” Jake, Dirk’s matesprit, asked, idling fixing his shirt.

“Yes, and he disappeared just before we were about to return. Karkles and I searched a while to see if he was just playing a trick, but we found clues that he was taken, but we don’t know where.”

“How did you lose him? Isn’t the path normally very clear?” Dirk asked, folding his arms over his chest.

“He is a really slow walker, and we were just getting the horses ready, when he doesn’t answer us.” Dave replied.

“And neither of you felt any sort of presence besides each other?” Dirk raised an eyebrow at his little brother.

“No, that’s the weird thing. They must have been good at hiding to be able to do that.”

“Why would someone take John?” Jake questioned.

“I don’t know.” Dave shook his head. “But can either of you help Karkat and me?”

Dirk looked thoughtful before turning to Jake. “You’re a good tracker, right? Even with next to no tracks to go on?”

Jake nodded and Dave perked up. If they had Jake with them, a master hunter and tracker, they were sure to find John within a couple days.

Karkat

Karkat thought about all the people he could ask that could help him and the stupid moirail of John’s find John. He thought maybe Terezi could help, but remembered she was off on some journey to _find herself and her life_ , whatever that meant.

Karkat sighed and sat down at the desk in his room, looking at the piece of paper in front of him. He wished his moirail was around, but he had no idea where he was anymore. The last he had heard from the fucker was a month ago and he was travelling north to ‘give warm vibes to the cold motherfuckers up there,’ whatever the fuck _that_ meant.

He wrote his letter anyway, hoping somehow to messenger could find his moirail, and better yet, if Karkat could see him in front of him within the next week.

The next morning Karkat had heard from Sir Egbert that Dave had gone back to the castle and that the duke was going to go there as well. Karkat had declined to accompany him as he wanted the day to search the woods again.

He spent the next five days fruitlessly searching the woods, not finding a single hint, and his temper reached an all-time high. He was about to rip a tree when he saw the familiar shades of Dave along with another human Karkat didn’t meet often.

He marched up to them, visibly trying not to yell at Dave.

“Where the fuck had you been, you nooksniffer?” He demanded, barely remembering to nod at Jake.

“Went to get help, and hey, would you look at that, I did.” Dave said sarcastically and both heard Jake sigh but ignored him.

“Without telling me anything? I’ve been searching for days without finding a damn thing while you’ve been gone who the hell knows.” Karkat just barely managed to keep his voice low as they walked to a quiet courtyard.

“Well, with him, we might be able to find something that we couldn’t see before.” Dave said, seemingly glaring at Karkat from behind the shades. “In case you forgot, Jake is a great hunter and an excellent tracker. If anyone can help us, it’s this man right here.”

Jake looked sheepish, and Karkat huffed. He just wanted to see John again, it was making him feel ill not knowing where his matesprit was.

“Fine, when are we going to fucking start then?” He demanded, looking between the two humans.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Making sure I'm doing distance right is annoying and I feel like I'm going to forget it. :P  
> I really like Dirkjake, and I think its a cute ship, under the right circumstances.  
> And yes, I made Dave related to the king, since he is related to Dirk, the Prince(ah, yes, the classes come in handy with these things)  
> Next chapter is going to be fun, trust me~


	5. The Bard's Bane

Gamzee smiled as he walked through the familiar roads he hadn’t seen in about a year. He was excited to see his moirail again after so long, knowing that the letters could hardly express his want to have a feels jam like they used to.

But he couldn’t meet his moirail just yet. He was back for a good place to play his music, and had even been invited to sing for a Lord in the nearby area. He promised himself to meet with Karkat after he was done with the Lord.

He reached the house, impressed by how large it was. He knocked on the front door, and smiled again at the lady who answered, not noticing her surprise.

“Hello, madam, I was told to arrive here as soon as possible to sing for the Lord of the house?” He spoke formally, but his body language was laid back. “May I enter?”

The woman stuttered before saying yes and opening the door wide enough for Gamzee to walk in.

“So you are the entertainer for the night?” She asked, tucking her dark hair behind her ear as if worried.

“Yes, madam. My name is Gamzee Makara, a humble motherfucking bard for hire.” He bowed to her as she escorted him to a small room for him to set up.

“Gamzee? I believe I have heard that name around here. Were you from here, by any chance?” The maid asked curiously.

“Actually, yes. Lived here for most of my sweeps before I decided to become a bard. Haven’t been back for a year.” Gamzee told her. “I miss it here, especially because I miss my motherfucking moirail like hell.”

“Your moirail?”

“Yeah, this great little troll, heard he’s finally a knight. Karkat Vantas, you know him?” Gamzee now noticed the surprised look on the maid’s face. “I take it you do?”

The woman jumped before blushing. “Oh, uh, yes, I have seen him around. Have you seen him yet since you came back?”

“No, not yet. Just got back, to tell you the truth. I’m planning on seeing him after this.” Gamzee said, smiling at the thought of his moirail. “And I can’t wait for him to be surprised by me.”

“What do you mean?” Gamzee jumped this time, as the woman looked at him curiously.

“Well, you wouldn’t be able to tell now, but when we last saw each other, I used to use a lot of…” Gamzee thought about the right word for humans before giving up. “I used to eat a lot of bad stuff that made my head feel weird. It’s normally used for trolls to sleep better, but I would have it by the pint every other day. Kar hated me when I was like that, and before I left he made me promise not to have any of it.”

The woman nodded, her face slightly confused but she was obviously too polite to say anything.

“That is very courageous of you to stop for your moirail.” She smiled slightly before nodding at him. “And I must pardon myself, Mr. Makara. I still have many rooms to clean. I will return to show you to the Lord’s main room. Please feel at home in here.”

Gamzee watched the woman walk out of the room, leaving him alone.

*1 hour later*

The woman returned with a frown, and she brought Gamzee to the main room, towards a little stage off to the side.

There were a few servants and other people in the room, along with a couple vaguely familiar faces to Gamzee. They were all human, which surprised Gamzee, as he had seen a couple jars of sopor slime on his way to the main room with the woman, who had told him was Jane.

Finally the Lord himself entered the room, and he was very large. He was taller than any troll he had met so far, and had very large muscles everywhere. He had a scar over his right eye, and a golden tooth sticking out. He also wore a strange green cloak, and to Gamzee it looked like the lining of the cloak was changing colours.

Gamzee bowed deeply to the man, his head almost touching the floor and missing the look of disgust the Lord gave him.

“Hello, Lord Caliborn. It is a pleasure to play for you and your house.” Gamzee said, putting an easy smile on his face as he grabbed his lute and began plucking the strings.

The first few ballads he sung were of heroes he had heard about while on his journey. Then, as the sun began to set, he was asked to play a new human song that he had learned recently.

He plucked the lute a few times to make sure he remembered the melody and words.

 

"How many kinds of sweet flowers grow

In an English country garden?

I'll tell you now of some that I know

And those I miss you'll surely pardon

Daffodils, heart's ease and flox

Meadowsweet and lady smocks

Gentain, lupine and tall hollihocks

Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots

In an English country garden.

How many insects come here and go

Through our English country garden?

I'll tell you now of some that I know

And those I miss you'll surely pardon

Fireflies, moths and bees

Spiders climbing in the trees

Butterflies that sway on the cool gentle breeze

Their are snakes, ants that sting

And creeping things

In an English country garden

How many songbirds fly to and fro

Through our English country garden?

I'll tell you now of some that I know

And those I miss you'll surely pardon

Bobolink, cuckoo and quail

Tanager and cardinal

Bluebird, lark, thrush and nightingale

There is joy in the spring

When the birds begin to sing

In an English country garden"

As he played the final notes of the melody, he smiled as the audience gave their applause and he was finished. He put his lute away and bowed graciously, happy he made another large group of people happy with his music. It was times like this that he was happy he left his highblood calling for something more his pace.

The Lord himself stood and clapped for him, and Gamzee felt very pleased he even made the slightly intimidating human happy with his music.

The humans began mingling as Gamzee packed his things when he saw someone he had seen a lot before he had left.

“John? Is that you?” He asked when he reached the dark haired human around his age.

“Gamzee, what are you doing?” John looked around fearfully, ducking down and seeming to hide himself from someone. “Well, if you’re here, I need you to give Karkat a message.”

“Give Kar a message? John, aren’t you like his motherfucking matesprit? Tell him yourself, man.” Gamzee said, not understanding John.

“No, I can’t, I’m trapped here and the first time I’m allowed outside that room in a week is to see you.” John spoke too fast for Gamzee. “I swear the man’s doing this on purpose.”

“John? Hey, John, speak slowly.” Gamzee tried to calm him down.

“Tell Karkat where I am. Please. Just do that.” John said, before his eyes widened and he slipped away as Gamzee turned around when a hand touched his shoulder.

It was Lord Caliborn. He had a tight face as he looked down on Gamzee, and a weird feeling passed through him, reminding him of those times he met with those scary seadwellers that tried to cull him for dropping his highblood status.

“For a good performance, bard.” He said, handing Gamzee a glass that smelled strange to him. “It is human mead, that is all.”

Gamzee took the glass, and thinking it would be rude to refuse the Lord of the house, he took a couple gulps of the drink, before coughing at the gross taste.

It was when he stopped coughing that he realized something was weird about the drink. At the very bottom of the glass was a bright green colour, and his stomach clenched before his mind turned hazy.

He looked up at the Lord, wide-eyed. The man had a large, almost evil grin, plastered on his face as he gave Gamzee another drink, and he could distantly hear him tell him to drink.

 _No, don’t drink it, you motherfucker._ Gamzee thought, but his mind and body seemed detached, and it felt familiar. His body took the rest of the drinks that the Lord gave him, and Gamzee wasn’t even sure what he was doing anymore.

He was distantly aware he was given his things before Jane was ordered to make him leave. He felt her concerned stare, and he felt himself walk strangely. He knew what was happening, but couldn’t believe it. He had been doing so well, had stopped having the stupid stuff for almost a year, and was supposed to surprise Karkat about that.

As he stumbled through the roads, he barely even realized Jane had stuck with him until he felt her pull him down a different street than he was used to and they entered an inn. She kept a hand on his shoulder as she steered him to a room and forced him to lay down, his brain too hazy to do anything but listen to her.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I hope I did Gamzee's character good... I have no idea. I've never really written him before. (Actually many of these characters are the first time I'm writing them, such as Dave and Jane).  
> The song I used is called "English Country Garden" by Jimmie Rodgers. I remember having to learn this for an elementary school medieval project. It was really fun, and I personally love singing it.


	6. The Old Unicorn

John cried out when he felt a hand squeeze his neck, the fingers putting pressure on the two pressure points hard enough to make his knees almost give out.

“Did you really think I would let you just talk to that filthy thing without consequences?” The man said. Even after a week of being trapped in the house, John never once heard anyone say the man’s name.

John’s head was forced to look at where the Lord had left Gamzee, and he could tell Gamzee was having trouble standing up from drinking whatever the man had given him.

The two saw Jane take Gamzee by the elbow and push him along, taking his things with her. John glared at the Lord, who was grinning happily as Gamzee was led out of the house.

Without any warning, the man turned around and began moving John back in the direction of his ‘room,’ making John try to twist away to no avail. He couldn’t understand how he was so weak against this man, but every time he thought he could find a way out, the man just came forward and dashed all ways of escaping.

The Lord pushed John back into his ‘room’ and locked the door, and John was left in darkness as the lights outside the room weren’t on. John sighed and felt his way to the mattress, laying on it tiredly.

He wondered what was going outside, and if anyone had found where he was yet.

Karkat

One of the Egberts’ servants called to Karkat early in the morning, giving him a letter.

Thinking it was Gamzee, Karkat opened the letter and read it quickly, before dropping the paper like it was fire.

_Mr. Karkat Vantas,_

_I regret to inform you, but it seems a bard by the name of Gamzee Makara has been ill and my matesprit brought him to my family’s inn. She gave no more information besides that, and to wish for you to pick him up._

_He is at the Old Unicorn Inn, just on the outskirts of town. Please ask for me when you arrive._

_From, Roxy_

Karkat glared at the paper, trying to figure out what it meant. Why was Gamzee at some inn if he was in town? And why did he never seem to think to tell him that he was in town at all?

Growling, Karkat went to change fully and left a note outside Dave’s bed to tell him where he had gone, and to go searching without him.

Karkat reached the inn within an hour, smirking at the image of a lanky elder unicorn on the sign. He entered the mostly empty bar, looking for someone that seemed to be in charge or something.

He was nearly barreled over by a woman running in the opposite direction.

“Ohmigosh! Sorry, sorry!” She seemed to blend her words together as she spoke so fast. “I didn’t see ya there, dear!”

She was about to run again before she fully took in Karkat’s appearance. She slowed and straightened slightly.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be Mr. Vantas, would you?” She asked, slowing her mouth so Karkat could actually understand what she was saying.

“Eh? Yes, I’m Karkat Vantas. I’m supposed to look for Roxy?” He looked around before hearing the woman giggle.

“That’s me! I’m glad it didn’t take you long to get here. Janey just left to go back to work, and your friend has been out for a while. Janey seemed to have been keen on seeing you again.” The woman, Roxy, chattered as she led Karkat to the inn’s rooms.

“Again? I don’t believe I’ve met you or this ‘Janey’ person before.”

“Really? You never saw us?” Roxy pouted before smiling again. “We’ve seen you when you visit the grumpy Prince’s brother and sister. You were always with him and…” She paused, tapping her chin. “That dark haired boy, I think I remember Dirk saying he was Dave’s moirail? Yeah, that’s the one!”

Roxy didn’t seem to notice that her guest had stopped walking a few feet away from the correct door until she turned around.

“Huh? Whatcha doing over there? That’s not his room, silly.” She giggled again before walking back to Karkat and grabbing his arm, tugging him gently along to the door and let go to open it herself.

Karkat shook his head, knowing this very bubbly woman couldn’t possibly know what happened to John, but maybe…

“Why would an innkeeper know the Prince?” He asked instead as they walked into the rather large guest room.

“Oh? Hmm, that’s simple.” Roxy tapped her nose with a smile. “I’m the grumpy Prince’s moirail. Jake introduced us when we were younger than you. Now come on, he should still be in the bed.”

She motioned for him to follow her more and they reached the bed and the long body hidden under mounds of blankets.

“It is a little bad that such a good inn doesn’t have your kinds of sleeping rooms, but he didn’t seem to mind in the least when we brought him in.” Roxy pulled the blankets away from the sleeping form.

Karkat looked down with conflicted feelings as he saw his moirail looking like he was in a coma or something, but he knew from many experiences that it was not anything like a coma. He could smell the sopor slime from where he stood, but he saw how twitchy Gamzee was looking in his sleep. Gamzee was never like this even high off the stupid stuff.

Roxy shook the troll on the bed slightly, and Gamzee jerked awake, groaning as he relaxed.

“Motherfuck. Wha happened?” He groggily asked, before noticing Karkat. “My motherfucker!”

“Gamzee what the shit?” Karkat demanded. “Why didn’t you tell me you were in town?”

“Well, ya see. I wanted to surprise the fuck outta you, but now that motherfucking surprise is gone down the pipe.” He slowly got up, stretching. “My head hurts like a motherfucker.”

Karkat narrowed his eyes. Gamzee only said ‘motherfucker’ when he was nervous or when he took a lot of the green slime.

“What the fuck happened, Gam?” He asked.

“Can’t really remember much…” Gamzee looked distantly sad. “I remember up until… I just finished the last song for a client.”

“You were playing, you knew it was here, and you never told me at least once you got here?!” Karkat tried hard to keep his voice level, at least remembering how Gamzee was when he was getting off the stuff.

“I was gunna after I finished. But… I don’t fucking know what happened after I finished playing… Maybe that girl knows. Where’d she go?” He looked at Roxy as he finished speaking.

“Hmm? Oh!” Roxy jumped, not expecting to have been noticed by the trolls. “She went to work. Should be back before the sun sets.”

“I don’t think it’s really fucking important to know what happened, Gamzee. I need to get you back.” Karkat grabbed his moirail’s wrist, trying to get him to stand.

Gamzee looked like he wanted to argue before he just shrugged. “Alright, motherfucker.” He turned back to Roxy. “Thank you, miss, for letting me stay the night. Pleasure to have gotten to see you.”

“It’s fine. My fam does this all the time. And you’d have to thank Janey for bringing you here in the first place.” Roxy grinned.

The three left the room and made their way back to the main room of the inn.

“Don’t be shy about coming here. It welcomes anyone and everyone.” The woman spread her arms wide around the inn. “Come by anytime!”

Karkat nodded uncertainly before tugging Gamzee again, who had all his things, and the trolls made their way back to the Egberts manor.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Have I been spelling the slime stuff wrong? I really can't tell, but I am being lazy and won't change it. :P  
> I also love Roxy. She can be responsible when she wants to be and act like an adult at times, but I'd think she's just a bubbly little cinnamon roll.  
> Next chapter is going to be a tiny timeskip, just a week ahead. So it'll be two weeks since John was kidnapped but one week before the very first event happened.


	7. The Healer's Threat

“What do you mean he’s _sick?_ ” Lord Caliborn screamed, and Jane tried to curl in on herself.

“He has been looking sickly, and when I went in to give him his meal, he wouldn’t wake up. His head was feverish, my Lord.” She said as fast as possible.

“How could he get sick, you stupid girl!” The Lord grabbed her by the front of her dress and shook her like a doll. “You got him sick, you stupid, idiotic girl!”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Jane squeaked, terrified. She tried desperately to get out of his grip, but all she did was get the top of her dress ripped. “I’m sorry my Lord! I didn’t!”

Lord Caliborn scoffed at her and flung her aside, Jane landing on her side before curling up. She stayed as she was until he had left, shakily sitting up.

Since she had been ordered to look after John, Jane had been forced to give reports on the Heir and just stand in front of the Lord much longer than she liked. And she knew she couldn’t leave his service unless she wished to be murdered. She couldn’t even tell Jake or Roxy about what was going on, and it hurt to lie to them.

Jane returned to work, keeping well away from anywhere she thought she heard the Lord walking in, and thought about her moirail.

She had been very surprised to see Jake with Dirk’s brother a few days ago. He had come by Roxy’s inn with the younger boy to see them and tell them about John’s disappearance. Jane had to act shocked by the news, but she felt like Jake didn’t believe her when the two guys had left the inn.

“Are you okay, Jane? You look a tad strange.” He had asked, and she just shook her head.

“Nothing. I’m just really surprised someone would take poor John. I hope you find him soon.” She replied.

Jane shook her head, snapping back to the present and dusted the walls.

Finally the day was ending and Jane was free to leave. The Lord had not said another word to her the rest of the day, and she was just at the door when a servant stopped her.

“Miss. The Lord wishes to see you in the room.” The girl gave her a sympathetic look before running off.

Jane slumped forward before marching to John’s room, before blinking in surprise at the additional person in the room.

She was slender and would be very tall when she got older, and for the third time Jane was shocked to see a troll in Lord Caliborn’s house.

But this was no ordinary troll. Going by her horns, Jane knew it was Kanaya, the land’s best healer. Despite her age, she was a very talented healer, as well as being the matesprit of Dirk’s sister. Both girls looked surprised at recognizing the other before the troll turned back into the room.

“You are finally here, are you?” The Lord scoffed, snatching Jane’s wrist and yanking her into the room to stand right in front of him as they watched the healer look over John.

John looked worse than when Jane had last seen him. He looked asleep, but a fine layer of sweat covered his face and he twist and turned and his breath sounded ragged.

Kanaya knelt by the boy, her hands roving his neck and face before going at her medical bag. She didn’t speak a word to Jane or the Lord, as if forgetting they were there.

Within a few minutes, Kanaya had ground up some herbs and had given them to John along with some drops of water.

She sat back and finally turned to the other two with a slightly perplexed face.

“He should be fine now. It was a small fever, and it seemed to have broken just before I got here.” She said, nodding at John. “But, if I may be bold…?”

Lord Caliborn glared at her and the troll trailed off her sentence.

“You would be wise to not tell anyone about this, yes, troll?” The Lord took a threatening step forward but Kanaya looked unfazed.

“And why is that the wise choice, Lord?” She raised a delicate eyebrow.

“Don’t you have a delicate, fragile human you _love dearly?”_ He sneered.

Kanaya raised another eyebrow before frowning, standing her ground.

“Are you threatening me and my mate?” Jane could practically hear the troll bristling.

“And wouldn’t you love to see her blood, splattered all around her?” The Lord seemed to enjoy prodding the troll, and Jane shrunk back.

Kanaya narrowed her eyes before lunging at Lord Caliborn. But before she reached him, he quickly grabbed her by the neck, lifting her off the ground.

“I thought you would do that. You wouldn’t do it for that human, then how about a better bargaining chip?” Jane shrieked as Lord Caliborn’s free hand grabbed her by the hair and picked her off the ground.

Kanaya snarled and struggled out of his grip, but the Lord just laughed at the two girls.

“You breathe a word of this to anyone, and you will have the blood of all she ever cared for on your hands. Do you understand, you filthy troll bitch?” Lord Caliborn sneered and Jane cried out.

“Please, no, my Lord!” She cried, but the look he gave her made her almost lose her voice.

“Do. You. Under. Stand?” He seemed to squeeze Kanaya’s neck until she nodded.

He let the two go, Kanaya grabbing her neck and taking deep breaths, glaring angrily at the Lord while Jane fell on her side, whimpering.

The Lord left them, and Kanaya turned to Jane, who was finally relaxing enough to slowly get up.

“Why would you work for a monster like that?” She asked, helping her up.

“I didn’t know. And now I cannot leave unless he allows me or if I want to ‘disappear’ from this world forever.” Jane’s voice cracked and she just realized she was crying. She took deep breaths before looking at Kanaya. “I am very sorry, dear.”

“No, I should apologize. I do not have to deal with being around him every day without fail.” Kanaya looked sympathetic. “But what should we do now? Would he really do what he said?”

Jane nodded viciously. “He has done it too many times to count. No one besides those who work for him knows. There could be several cemeteries or graves that hold the victims of his cruelty.”

Kanaya frowned but before she spoke, Jane clasped her hands in her own.

“Please, you must not tell. He could very well do as he intended, and even those you care for will be in danger. Please, Kanaya.” Jane pleaded.

Kanaya was quiet for a moment before sighing and nodding. “I will not say anything. For the people you love. Now I believe we should leave before anything else happens.”

Jane nodded, hurriedly trying to fix herself as the two left John’s room and out of Lord Caliborn’s house.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Hey look, it's Kanaya!  
> I'm sorry if Jane was a little OOC, but really, in this story, compared to Caliborn, she is a weak little kitten. I need to hug her when this is over. She doesn't deserve what I'm doing to her... Then again, none of these characters deserve what I'm making them go through.


	8. The Kiss

Since the incident with Gamzee, John wasn’t allowed to leave his room again. He thought it was because the lord wanted to see his power over others, and maybe that weak way of putting John in his place.

John hated it. He was powerless and couldn’t stop what was going on around him. Jane would barely talk to him, besides small talk that didn’t even matter, and he had nothing to do most days besides stare at a wall until the torches outside his room were put out.

Then was the couple days he was sick. He kept it from Jane at first, hoping that he got ill enough for someone to come and notice him, and save him. But one day he just woke up better, and was told that the lord had pressured the healer to keep silent.

“What do you mean, pressured?” John asked as Jane dusted the ceiling.

She paused before looking at him. “He said if she said anything, he would target my loved ones. Jake, Roxy, Dirk, all of them would be at risk. Kanaya had no choice when it came to him threatening others.”

John frowned before kicking the wall slightly. _Why can’t I find someone to tell Dave or Karkat before he finds them?_

Jane shook her head, a sad smile on her face. “I can tell you hate it as well. I do wish I could help, but he is much more powerful than I am, and he has experience that none of my friends know.”

“Yeah, it’s fine, Jane. I’m just happy I can still talk to someone nice.” John sunk back on the mattress, drawing his knees up. “But I hope someone figures it out and gets rid of him.”

“It would take really strong people, or even some trolls.” Jane commented before taking her leave, saying she had other places to clean up before she could leave.

John slightly envied Jane on the fact she was able to leave, but at the same time pitied her for having the responsibility and threats to return. She must be courageous after working for the lord for so long.

John luckily did not have to see the lord for about another week, and his heart sunk when he heard the heavy _thumps_ instead of Jane’s small little _clik-clak._ The lord entered the room, and John was surprised to see him enter alone. Jane was normally dragged in with him, along with a look of pure terror at the proximity of the man.

“I wanted to talk with you, boy.” He said with a grin, his gold tooth easily visible.

John watched him, wary, but nodded anyway. “Okay. About what?”

“You are a part of a powerful family, and Heir to be the Duke after your father.” The man said, and John frowned, not understanding what that had to do with anything. “And many have tried to win your father’s favour to win you.”

His eyes glinted with disgust. “But you rejected all possible suitors in favour of a troll and a lowly knight, and in favour of the stupid quadrants and 'love'. Most of the possible suitors left, believing a boy had figured himself out.” He sounded mocking.

John narrowed his eyes, about to speak but there was a dangerous look on the lord’s face that made him hold his tongue.

“But I, I did not think so. You are still stupid and naïve. You need someone to help you.” The man had a wicked look about him and John took a small step back, just noticing how uncomfortably close the lord was to him.

“Well, I don’t think I can help you with any-” John said before the man took another step forward and kissed him, hand holding the back of his head to trap him there.

It was horrible. There was none of the softness that Dave had, or the strange sweetness that Karkat had when they kissed. It hurt and the man tasted sour. His entire body wanted to curl up and just get away from the feeling.

The man let go of him with a large smile. “I will get your inheritance, Heir. Whether by you falling for me or by force. No one would take the word of a child, anyway.”

He left and John sank to the bed, or rather, his legs gave out on him and he was practically on the bed already. He drew his legs towards him and wrapped his arms around them, leaning against the wall.

_How did everything go so wrong?_ He thought glumly.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Finally full circle and now the story can move forward.  
> I'm still feeling bad about making Jane seem so weak to me... But I hope the justifications are okay for why...  
> Also, I'm trying to think of the word that's like, it would mean racist about aliens(like, a person is racist against a species). I don't know the word, but according to my sci-fi loving father, there is a word for it, but neither of us know it. I want to use it because, obviously, Caliborn is it. Anyone know what the word is?


	9. The Mind's Control

“This has led us nowhere!” Karkat growled at the other two, trying to keep his temper and worry down.

He had been having a rough time with trying to find time to check on his moirail, who seemed like he had some nasty hangover, and looking for John with Dave and Jake. Even with the acclaimed tracker, they were having a really bad time finding good tracks and leads.

“Whoever took him must have been better than most. It takes a lot of experience to disappear without a trace like this.” Jake said, sighing as he leant against a tree and rubbed his face. “I just don’t get it. There should be _something._ ”

Karkat, feeling his anger and worry and tiredness reach a peak, rounded on the Prince’s mate. “Yes, because _you’re_ supposed to be the best hunter and tracker in the land! We would have found him before I found out about Gamzee, but look at this, Gamz is a mess and John’s _still not here._ ”

“I’m trying my best, alright?” Jake defended, frowning at the young troll.

“I know! And that pisses me off!” Karkat grabbed at his head before leaning against a tree and slumping. “We’ve been searching practically non-stop, you two more than me because I have to take care of Gamzee, and we still haven’t found a lead on John. I don’t know what to do.”

“Neither do we, Kar. You know that.” Dave sighed. “But we can’t give up. We must be getting close to some sort of lead. Just, I dunno…”

“Have hope, knights.” Jake said, straightening up before walking over to where they had stopped for a break and began searching again.

Karkat groaned but kicked off the tree, about to pointlessly search when he heard Jake cry out.

“I think I found something, gentlemen!” He called.

The two knights hurried to Jake and saw him point to a nearby tree.

“There are some strangely bent branches along the bottom of that tree, as well as… Aha.” He stooped and moved away leaves. “Old tracks, but can’t be more than a few weeks old. Looks like a horse, or even a horse lusus from the size…”

Karkat stopped listening when it became apparent that Jake was now muttering quickly to himself as his head snapped around like a ragdoll.

He was just happy they might have found a new lead.

John

The next day, Jane came by and told John the worst news.

“The Lord wishes to see you in the main room. He seems to want to have an audience with you around.” She spoke very formally, but her eyes showed her pity.

“What do you mean by that?” John asked.

“He…” Jane looked around before lowering her voice. “He said he wants to show you off, and to tell your dad.”

“My father’s here?” John shouted, surprising Jane. “Why is he here? Are Karkat and Dave here with him? What about my sis-”

“He is alone. And I have a bad feeling, because there is another troll here. She seems to look quite scary.” Jane interrupted, before motioning John to follow her. “Now we must go. The Lord is not forgiving for any who make him wait.”

John understood and followed Jane out of the small room. He had no idea where he was in the house of the lord, because he had only been let out once.

They reached what Jane called the main room, where a small group of people stood around, the lord in the middle of them talking and giving off a sickening aura.

“Ah, there he is.” The lord called, walking over to John and grabbing his arm. “I was just talking about you.”

John stayed silent, but narrowed his eyes as he was led to the middle of the group. He saw many nobles from the kingdom, none he knew very well, before his eyes landed on his father.

“Fath-!” John started before the lord squeezed his arm tightly, and the heir shut his mouth.

“I was calling all you here today to celebrate a new courtship. I was just discussing with Sir Egbert about his son here, John, and everything has been arranged.” The lord said and John’s stomach turned to lead as he looked at his father.

Sir Egbert was looking at John strangely, as if he wanted to do something, but his body wasn’t moving.

“Yes.” His father said, and John felt a chill pass his spine. That was not the way his father talked. “My son has sadly ended his troll relationships in order to court this trusting man, Lord Caliborn. I fully support the courtship, and hope it will go smoothly.”

John opened his mouth to counter but saw something in his father’s eyes that told him something was wrong. It was then that John saw a troll in the background, her horns familiar.

He had had a troll friend when he had been younger who had been very unstable in human ideals, and old fashioned by troll standards. She had been a blue blood, with very spider-like qualities that John had thought were cool when he was thirteen.

The troll behind his father was almost identical to his old friend, but he knew it couldn’t be her, as she had been killed for trying to kill a human lord. This troll had short black hair, and her dress was shorter than most, looking like a spider web made the bottom half.

The troll smiled wickedly at John before putting a finger to her lips, looking at his father. John kept his mouth shut the entire time, staring between his father and the troll.

He watched in dismay as his father signed something the lord, Caliborn he finally learned, had given to him, before everyone but his father left them.

“Aranea, over here.” Caliborn ordered and the troll slid up, smiling sweetly at the man.

“Did I do well for you, my Lord?” She asked, her voice smooth as she cast her eyes towards John’s father and John.

“Yes, yes. Now, you’re mind games, it can include amnesia, correct? You said so yourself.” Caliborn asked.

“Of course, my Lord. I am the best troll for anything with mind games.” Aranea giggled. “It is in my blood to be able to control the minds of weaker things.”

John blinked before realizing why his friend had been killed. He remembered she had been born with the power to control troll minds, but wasn’t good with controlling humans besides making them fall asleep on will. She had tried it on the noble, but he had had many other people around him that she had not seen and they took her out.

“Do I get my money when Sir Egbert has forgotten everything?” The troll giggled again, and John saw his father stiffen.

“Wha?!” John started to shout.

“Shush, little human.” Aranea waved her hand at John and he felt his mouth clamp shut against his will. She barely looked at him as she continued to talk with Caliborn.

“Yes, just make sure he had selective memory. He will remember meeting me, but nothing about his brat being kept here. Not until I have everything ready for him not to escape.” The lord spoke as if John was a trophy and wasn’t even there.

John saw Jane standing by the door, her face a mask of trying to compose her shock. He wished she could do something, but they were both powerless against the lord, and with this powerful troll, they wouldn’t be able to try.

Finally, Aranea turned to John’s father.

“Are you ready to forget you ever saw your son here?” She asked cheerily. “I’ll even let you say one last thing before you forget him again.”

“John, they’re looking for you, and they will not stop until they find you.” His father said as soon as she finished speaking. “They have help, and I’m sure they’ll help you.”

He looked like he was about to continue when Aranea snapped her fingers and he straightened, his mouth snapping shut.

“That was nice. Now, let’s go, shall we?” The troll practically skipped out of the main room with John’s father, leaving Jane, John and the lord in the room.

When the door closed, Caliborn’s face became one of disgust.

“What a slutty, filthy troll. She’d do anything for money. But at least some disgusting creatures are good for something.” He muttered before turning to John. “Now, about you.”

John took a couple steps back before realizing the lord still had his arm in his grasp.

“You were a wonderful boy, staying silent while the adults decided your fate.” He smiled cruelly, his free hand mockingly caressing John’s cheek.

John jerked away from the hand, but Caliborn snarled and pulled him closer, grabbing his chin.

“You can no longer escape this, boy. I am that much closer to taking your inheritance. You and everything you have will be mine. And no one will be able to save you.” He sneered. “You know why? Because that slut of a maid will do anything to keep her filthy girl and her friends alive. She will even make others keep them alive.”

John heard Jane make a noise but couldn’t see her.

“Because everyone else believes this is a true courtship that you chose. I even have the papers to prove it.” Caliborn seemed to be gloating now. “And by the time someone actually finds out what happened, you will belong to me through law, with the only exit being death.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: Sorry, not sorry. It's just too much fun writing this and have John see more and more despair.  
> And I will write this here, as it won't be shown in the actual story. The troll I have referenced twice now has been Vriska, and she died when they were about 14(7 sweeps). She had tried to kill a noble(may or may not be caliborn) but had been found out and killed horrifically by the noble's men. Why she was trying to kill the noble, we may never know.(Unless its caliborn she tried to kill, then this story makes sense why she was trying)  
> I think maybe I'm a bit sorry for Aranea's behavior. She's only showing up here, and I wanted to show her as an active villain because why not.


	10. Neighbouring Town

The three followed the trail until it went dead again at the edge of the forest, but they were in the neighbouring noblemen’s land. Karkat couldn’t remember which nobleman owned this part of the land, as he had never seen him, but knew the noble lived close to the Egberts. He wondered where they would be able to find John in such a large town.

“He could be anywhere.” He flung his arms up in defeat as he saw the busy streets. “How are we supposed to find him now?”

“Well, we know he must be in this town. We can ask around if anyone has seen him.” Jake said, glancing between the two young knights. “Should we start… Wait, I know who we can ask. We’re really close.”

Karkat looked at the Prince’s mate in bewilderment as he started to walk into the crowd, Dave and him having nothing else to do but follow as quickly as they could.

It wasn’t until they reached a quieter corner that Karkat understood what Jake had been talking about as he saw the same sign that had held Gamzee when he came back to town.

They entered the Old Unicorn and looked around, Jake finding the person within seconds. It was the woman Karkat had met, the bubbly woman, Roxy. He called to her and she practically shouted in joy.

“Jakey! It’s been too long!” She cried, flinging her arms around the tracker’s neck. “Have you anything new to talk about?”

“No, he’s still missing.” Jake replied. “Is Jane back from working?”

“Oh, I think she should be…” Roxy trailed off when the door opened behind the two knights and they turned to see an exhausted looking woman enter.

She looked a little like John, but was curvier like a human woman and the shape of her face was different. Karkat knew she wasn’t related to John, as he only had a sister his age, Jade.

“Janey! Looky looky, it’s Jake again!” Roxy cried, dragging Jake with her to the woman, surprising the woman.

She looked at Jake then blinked at the two knights, her eyes flicking over them quickly.

“Hello.” She seemed to sigh, and Karkat felt like the tiredness she felt was palpable. “It’s nice to see you.”

“Oh, let’s go into the back so we can talk properly.” Roxy said, pulling the two older people along with her and the knights followed, not really sure what else they could do.

They sat in the back, where a table and a few seats were. Roxy sat beside Jane and Dave on one side, Jake and Karkat the other side.

“What are you doing back here again? I thought you said you weren’t coming until you’ve found him.” Roxy asked.

“Yeah, and we found tracks that led to the neighbouring town. Who owns this side of the land?” Jake asked.

“Oh, that’s Lord Caliborn, Jane’s boss.” Roxy’s face turned sour for a moment and Karkat saw Jane stiffen. “How such a horrid piece of shit could own this land and everything is beyond me.”

“He was born into it, Rox. You know I wish he wasn’t the lord, but we can’t do anything.” Jane told her with a weary sigh, as if they had this conversation often.

“But have you two seen anyone that looks like John, at all in the past few weeks since I last saw you?” Jake asked, leaning forward.

Roxy shook her head and after a long pause, Jane shook her head as well. “Nope. I would’ve found a way to tell you if I had. But I have heard rumours going around about the lord being haunted by a dark haired boy. It started up around a week ago, but it’s really weird because Jane never saw the thing.”

“You think maybe the rumour is about John?” Dave asked.

Roxy shrugged. “I don’t really know. Rumours are only that; rumours. I don’t think it’s true, because Janey here says so. Why would the lord even want John anyway?”

The others shrugged.

Karkat, getting fed up with the pleasantries, jumped up, smacking his fists on the table. “We don’t have time to chitchat about shit! My matesprit has been missing for almost a month and we haven’t gotten any closer to finding him!

“We’re trying, Karkat. But whoever took him has higher skill than I do.” Jake apologized. “Maybe we should talk to Lord Caliborn about if he heard anything? What do you think, Jane?”

Karkat saw the woman stiffen, her face looking like a mask. Roxy answered for her.

“I wouldn’t. He’s horrid, and I doubt he would even look at the three of you if you bring Karkitty here with you.” Karkat frowned at the nickname, remembering an old friend that pestered him with that name. “He absolutely _hates_ trolls. In his mind, trolls are lower than shit.”

“Then we go without him.” Dave shrugged, ignoring Karkat’s shouts of dissent. “Look, we can try to get information from this stupid Lord, and be gone before Karkat has his fit.” He turned to Karkat directly. “And you need to look after Gamzee. So stop being an asshat and take a small breather while we talk to him.”

“Are… Are you sure you’d want to talk to Lord Caliborn, guys?” Jane looked distressed but only Karkat caught the look in time. “You can, uhm, try in the morning. I can, ah, inform him you wish to speak with him.”

Karkat threw his hands up and stormed to the door. “Fine! I’ll be back with Gamz. You fuckers better find something, or I’m beating your asses.”

“Hey, threaten me only, what are you doing, trying to make me jealous?” Karkat could hear the smirk in Dave’s voice without turning around.

“Oh, grow up, nooksniffer, it was a fucking expression.” Karkat rolled his eyes as he left the room.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I can't write blackroms... I'm trying, but I don't understand it enough to write it well.  
> And Roxy likes nicknames, especially those cutesy kiddish nicknames like Janey, Jakey, etc. It's when she doesn't use those nicknames that you should worry because she's being serious.


	11. Surprise/Visit

Jade frowned when she found his room empty again, before throwing her hands up in defeat. _Why couldn’t he just leave me a note or something to let me know where he’s going?_ She wondered as she left the room, pouting. _And here I was, wanting to surprise him._

Jade really wanted to know where her boyfriend always went off to, and why she hadn’t been seeing much of him or her brother in a long while. She passed room after room until she heard familiar shouting.

“No, go the fuck back to sleep, you nooksniffer! Before I ram my fist into your face and make you.” She heard, walking towards the shouting.

“Oh, hi Karkat!” She smiled when she saw the open door and the drained knight leaning against the frame, looking in.

He turned around and gave her a tired annoyed look. “What do you want? I’m busy with this assclown.” He jerked his head towards the room, where Jade just started to hear snoring.

“Gamzee needs more sleep? But he’s been sleeping, like, nonstop since coming here.” Jade said, stopping in front of Karkat.

“Yes, I’m not dealing with his high ass, so I’m making him sleep it off. Just didn’t fucking know how long it takes to get out of his system.” Karkat sighed.

“Oh…” Jade paused before asking. “Do you know where Dave is? I wanted to surprise him, since I’ve been gone for a bit.”

“He went to talk to a douche of a nobleman that fucking hates trolls, with Jake.” Karkat huffed.

“Aw, Jake’s around too? And I’ve been missing him?” Jade pouted again. “I keep missing people I haven’t seen in ages.” She paused, her eyebrows connecting. “Wait, why are they seeing a noble that hates trolls?”

“You…?” Karkat trailed off and Jade stared the knight down. “Fuck, how long have you been gone?”

“Just a month. And it was to help some witches in training when their teacher got sick.” Jade crossed her arms. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Fuck, why me?” Karkat groaned, looking to the ceiling.

“Karkat.” Jade warned, the space around the two darkening.

“Alright, alright, keep your corset on.” Karkat sighed. “They went to see if the fucker knew anything about John’s whereabouts. He’s been missing for almost a month.”

Jade blinked once, then twice, before the space turned darker, her eyes glowing bright green. “What?!”

Karkat took a couple steps back, having learned it wasn’t a good thing to try to approach the witch when she got angry.

“We’ve been looking for him ever since we couldn’t find him after a double date. Jake’s been added because he’s apparently a good tracker.” He rushed out his words, and Jade took a deep breath, the space becoming normal again, her eyes returning to their light green colour.

“But, how could John be missing? And that he’s been missing for so long?” She asked.

“We don’t know. Someone took him and that’s all we know.” Karkat gave a huge breath before turning back into the room. “Now, I have to take care of this motherfucker. Sorry, Jade, but I can’t talk much more.”

The witch nodded and left the troll to take care of his moirail.

John

John began to appreciate the room he was trapped in more than being allowed to walk around the house. It meant he wasn’t going to be around that huge douche as much. John shuddered at the thought of Caliborn.

It had been a couple days since he had seen his father being controlled, and there were times he was called out of his room to ‘be courted’ by the vile man. All that meant was Caliborn boast about getting closer to John’s Inheritance, and him forcing John to kiss him, under pain of Jane being punished.

The lord was clever, the first and only time John had refused outright, he had Jane undress and struck her with a hot poker across her back, from her right shoulder to left hip. He refused to let Jane do anything to it, and made it in a way that it was not noticeable.

After that image, John was all but terrified to refuse, but it made him sick to his stomach. But he did it to protect his friend, and would rather suffer through the awful ‘courting’ than see someone he cared about get hurt because of him.

The door suddenly opened to John’s room and he jumped, snapping back to reality. He sighed when he saw Jane before frowning at her strange look.

“Jane?” He asked.

“I thought… I thought they could do something. I made a horrible decision. John I’m so sorry.” She cried, rushing up to the Heir and grabbing him to her, visibly shaking.

“Jane?” John repeated, confused as the woman hugged him tightly.

She was silent for several seconds before pulling back and John saw her eyes were teary.

“Dave and Jake are here to talk to the lord, and I don’t know what he’s going to do to them.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I meant to write in Jade in a completely different way, but... I seemed to have forgotten about her for a while and this way seemed fun. Jade's a fun character, I have to say, especially as a witch like this. She's easy to anger in a way, as well as easy to calm down.  
> Also, Jade and Dave would make a cute couple, :P to the haters. They are also a little more... human in their relationship, saying bf/gf instead of matesprit. Hopefully I can write in a part that can explain that better.  
> And, it's fun seeing how cruel I can make Caliborn. ^u^


	12. Knockout

John gaped at Jane, unsure whether to run out and try to find Dave and Jake, or stay where he was.

“Please, John, I don’t know what to do. They’re waiting and will see him any moment. He knows why they’re here; I had no other choice but to tell him.” Jane sounded like she was trying to apologize and John couldn’t understand why.

“John, please, what do I do?” She pleaded and he snapped back to earth.

“I need to see them. Have to.” He mumbled, walking past Jane before feeling her hand grip his arm.

“You can’t! They’re most likely already with him.” She cried. “Who knows what would happen if you arrived when he was with them!”

John tightened his jaw, torn.

“Oh, he can see them again.” They both jumped at the voice to see Caliborn standing in the doorway, dumping two unconscious people into the room. “Girl, come with me. Let’s leave them alone for a bit.”

Jane jumped again before nodding, her body still shaking. John heard the door lock, and he was stuck in the room with two people he wondered were even alive.

Jake

*half an hour ago*

“For someone really hated, he seems oddly courteous.” Jake remarked as he and Dave followed Jane into the house of Lord Caliborn. “I mean to allow us to see him so soon is very nice.”

Dave grunted and Jake was reminded of Dirk when they were a couple years younger. He smiled faintly, shaking his head before looking serious again as they entered what looked like the main room where everything happened.

“Please, wait here while I go inform the Lord you have arrived.” Jane said, but the hint of fright in her voice was noticeable to her moirail.

Just as she was about to move to leave the room, Jake grabbed her arm.

“Jane…” He looked carefully into her eyes, trying to understand what was going on in her head. “What’s wrong?”

“No-nothing, Jake. Nothing’s wr-wrong.” She stuttered, forcefully removing her arm from his grasp, but Jake still saw the fear in her eyes.

He raised his hands in surrender. “Okay. Just checking, Jane.”

She looked at him with an unfamiliar guarded look before walking quickly to a door, pausing in front of it as if to say something before leaving.

“What’s up with this lord guy that makes his own workers terrified even being in the house?” Dave wondered aloud, and Jake turned to him with a shake of the head.

“She never really tells me. Anything else in her life, anything outside of work, you can read her like an open scroll, but as soon as the topic of Lord Caliborn comes up, she freezes up. Roxy and I have tried to get some information out of her for years, but the most we get out is his hatred for trolls and the like.” Jake explained, looking back at the door Jane had walked through with a small sigh. “I wish she would talk to us about it. We’d both be willing to help her.”

“Help who, gentlemen?” Jake jumped at the proximity of the voice behind him, and turned to see a large man with a visible golden tooth and what looked to be a large table leg that must be a cane for the man.

“Ah! Apologies, my lord.” Jake straightened, bowing slightly. “We hadn’t realized you had entered already. It’s nothing, sir.”

Jake saw Dave bow his head to who could only be Lord Caliborn, and the lord gave a rather unpleasant smile to the two.

“Ah, alright. So my maid had informed me you two wish to ask me for service, yes?” The lord said, walking to a large decorated chair and sat down, gesturing for a couple of smaller chairs to the side of his chair.

“Yes, my lord. We have hoped you had already heard of the events of what happened to Sir Egbert’s son, John?” Jake asked, sitting down.

“Ah, yes. It’s tragic, really.” There was a slight twinge in the lord’s voice that rubbed Jake the wrong way, although he couldn’t understand why. “I do hope they find the poor little child.”

“Yes. So, we were wondering if you had heard anything, or had seen something going on in your territory.” Dave spoke up, his tone unfamiliarly formal towards the lord.

“If I had heard anything?” Lord Caliborn had a spark in his eyes as he looked thoughtfully away from the two that made Jake’s skin crawl in a way he couldn’t describe. “I cannot say I have heard much about the Heir. Besides of course what has been passed in gossip, and when Sir Egbert had come to visit me a while ago.”

“Sir Egbert had visited you recently?” Jake asked, having no knowledge of a meeting between the two having taken place recently. “That seems rather peculiar. He had been so upset ever since, Dave and the others around his house had noticed him not going to meet with others.”

“Oh, it is odd?” Lord Caliborn looked surprised, and Jake blinked twice, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him or if he really closed the gap between himself and Dave within a second.

It happened to fast for even the quick Dave to realize what happened, as one second they were sitting and speaking to Lord Caliborn, the next Jake saw Dave crumple before feeling a jab to multiple pressure points, knocking him out next.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't realize I had ended that last chapter on a cliffhanger-ish. Whoops, hehe.


	13. Discovery

The door slammed, and John stared at the two almost lifeless forms lying in a heap together on the bed. He had sat them up on the bed, looking over them as best he could with the limited light.

He was now wondering with a slight smirk about how Dave could still possibly have those strange tinted glasses on his face, not even askew, and the smirk grew into a grin as he could almost guess his moirail’s answer, ‘I’m just too cool for my glasses to fall off.’

He was almost too far in his head when he heard the mattress squeak as one of them stirred, and John jumped, snapping his eyes to the other person, Jake.

Jake groaned, a hand raised to touch his neck as his eyes fluttered open, blinking unseeingly until they focused on John. He frowned and narrowed his eyes, before giving a start and grabbing at John.

“John!” Jake cried, checking his face as if to make certain he was real.

John thanked whatever was in the sky that they weren’t dead, but he kept quiet when he didn’t know what to say to Jake.

“Where the- How did- What-?” Jake asked, shaking John’s head around between his hands, looking around himself and paused when he saw the still unconscious Dave. “What happened?”

John shrugged, looking between the two other males in the room and the doorway. “I was actually hoping you could help with that.”

“I…” Jake rubbed the side of his head as he paused to think. “We… We went to ask the Lord if he had…” His eyes widened as he made the connection. “He knocked us out.”

“Why would he do that?” John asked. “What does he have to gain from this?”

“I… Uh, I don’t know, to be honest with you. I’m just as puzzled as you are.” Jake shifted into a more comfortable sitting position before he started again. “Where’s Jane? Oh god, did she know? What’s going to happen to her?”

“Woah, woah there Jake. I don’t know about Jane.” John debated for a couple seconds whether to tell Jake she was currently out with Caliborn after he dropped the two men in John’s room, before deciding against it. “But I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

Jake sighed and looked towards the door. “I hope you’re right, John.”

Karkat

“Okay, where are those two complete idiots?” Karkat muttered to himself as he walked from Gamzee’s room to the kitchen to find something to eat for dinner.

Jake and Dave had left in the morning to talk to the xenophobic Lord and still haven’t returned, and Karkat, despite his outward appearance, was beginning to worry. If they had gotten info to use, or had nothing, they still wouldn’t have taken this long to return.

Now not only was his matesprit missing, but his pitchmate was AWOL along with Jake while going to find information about John. It was driving Karkat crazy having to worry over two dumb humans, but he couldn’t help it.

“Well, if you keep worrying like that, even Gamzee will start to notice in his sleep.” A silken voice spoke from behind Karkat, making the troll scream obscenities as he clutched his shirt as if to stop his bloodpusher from its attempts to leave his body.

Spinning on his heels, Karkat began his usual rant when someone sneaks up on him before the words died before they reached his throat when he saw he was in front of Dave’s sister, Rose the Seer.

Even at her young age, Rose was the best Seer the land had ever seen in over a hundred years. She had managed to save countless towns and villages from the harm of nature, as well as keep tentative peace with the neighbouring kingdoms because she could tell when a kingdom was about to break their oaths.

“What the hell, Rose?” Karkat snapped without any bite, having always been nervous around the Seer, even more so when she started going red with Kanaya, one of Karkat’s oldest friends, and a ‘could have been’ moirail before Gamzee came into the picture.

Rose smiled, but her smile didn’t reach her violet eyes as they gazed at Karkat with a hint of sadness. “Apologies. But what I said would have been true otherwise, and I can see you will not be able to handle another quadrant problem.”

“Ugh, okay, whatever.” Karkat said dismissively. “What do you want? I thought you never left your cave.”

“I left it because Kanaya has been acting very strange lately, almost as if she’s hiding something from me, so I thought to ask you if you had heard from her.” Rose admitted, a hand absently pulling at her black and purple dress. “I also came to ask if what I had been hearing about John had been true. At least I now know one thing for certain.”

“Kan’s been acting weird?” Karkat asked, his brows furrowed. “And how can she be hiding something from you? I thought you could see anything and everything.”

“I thought so too, but…” Rose pursed her lips. “It’s as if something or someone is blocking my ability about just that specific event that happened to her.” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “All I know about it is that before she had said she had a patient with a Lord nearby, and the next she’s been putting on airs about what happened.”

“That doesn’t sound like Kan.” Karkat muttered. “Did she tell you the name of the lord she had been called to see?”

“Lord Coldidorn or something?” Rose replied. “I cannot remember the name very well, but it sounded a bit like that.”

Karkat paused, his eyes narrowing. “You mean… Lord Caliborn?” He silently prayed she would say no.

Rose looked thoughtful, her eyes lighting up as she nodded. “Yes, that sounds about right. Lord Caliborn. It had been about two or three weeks ago.”

Karkat felt like his blood had run cold.

Chapter done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's notes: I finally could introduce Rose! Hooray! I also hope I didn't make Rose ooc. I've never really written her all that much.  
> So, now I think I have introduced all the characters I originally wanted to include, but who knows, we might meet other characters. The story isn't over yet!  
> And while I do really like pale GamKar, KanKar holds a special place in my heart because they just seem to be as close as the Kids are to one another in canon.


	14. Motherfucker

“I need to see Kanaya. Now.” Karkat grabbed Rose’s shoulders before releasing her just as quickly as if burned. “Where- where is she?”

“Avoiding me. I’m certain you can find her if you go to my cave, I’m not to return for a while. Now, where is my brother? Dirk believed he wouldn’t be leaving town until you found John.” Rose replied coolly, brushing her sleeves to straighten them again.

“He… Fucking…” Karkat cursed. He just had the worst luck with his quadrants’ sisters. Heaving a huge sigh, Karkat began again. “He and Jake went to visit the Lord you were talking about and wouldn’t bring me because the douche hates us trolls and I’m starting to see something that should have been super fucking obvious but now I need to see Kan to find out for sure.”

Rose blinked before nodding. “Alright. Would you like any help with that?”

Karkat opened his mouth to reply when another female voice sounded behind him, scaring him again.

“Help with what?” The voice asked, making the troll scream obscenities as he clutched his shirt as if to stop his bloodpusher from its attempts to leave his body, again.

“What the hell is it with you women?! Are you two fucking ghosts?” Karkat panted, his bloodpusher racing. “Why don’t you let me know before you’re at my fucking back!”

“Well excuse me, Mr. Grumpy Nubs.” Jade sassed before smiling brightly at Rose. “I’m so happy to see you again! It’s been too long, Rose.”

“Sorry, Jade. Seems we had been quite busy until now.” Rose replied, and Karkat fumed at being ignored by both women.

“So what were you going to help Mr. Nubs with?” Jade asked.

“I believe Karkat has an idea where your dear silly brother is, and needs to see my mate to know for certain.” Rose responded, finally looking back at Karkat to see him sulking between the two girls. “Karkat?”

“Oh, now you can see me? Fan-fucking-tastic, can we go now?” Karkat was itching to move before stopping mid-step. “Wait, I have to check on Gamzee. Uh, meet me in the stables, we’ll take a couple horses to make this quicker. I’ll be right back!”

Before Jade or Rose could respond, Karkat was bolting to his moirail’s room.

Gamzee

Gamzee’s head hurt, like a jackrabbit had been thumping around in his skull, and his mouth felt dry.

Struggling to open an eye, Gamzee tossed his head to the side, feeling the softness of the pillows under his head and when he took a breath… It was familiar and made him take a deeper breath. It was Karkat’s scent everywhere and how Gamzee had missed that smell.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he was able to open both eyes and saw the scattered long sleeve shirts that only his moirail would wear, and as he continued to blink owlishly around the room, he saw other various items that meant he was in Karkat’s room.

He saw portraits and writings on the wall that only Karkat would be okay with hanging up, and he saw the old sickles Gamzee dimly remembered presenting him with after a nasty argument that almost ended their relationship (Long story short: it had been their 2 year anniversary but Gamzee was majorly high off the slime pies and well, you get the picture).

He heard the door creak and Gamzee heard soft footsteps until he saw the glorious mess of black hair before he saw the adorable nubs of his moirail appear in his line of sight, and a crooked smile appeared on Gamzee’s face.

“Hey, Karkat, my motherfucker.” Gamzee’s voice was husky as he just woke up and Karkat seemed surprised to see him awake.

Karkat gave him a good hard look before finally replying to the troll on the bed. “You finally have it all out of your system, right?”

“What out of my system?” Gamzee frowned before smacking his lips. “Hey, have any water? My throat hurts worse than a motherfucking desert.”

“Oh thank god.” Karkat looked relieved as he left Gamzee’s line of sight before returning, a hand reaching for Gamzee’s head. “C’mon, up, up. Unless you fucking want water to stain my fucking bed.”

Gamzee struggled to sit up, but finally he did and he took the cup Karkat offered. When he finished, Karkat took the cup again and put it on the bedside table, and Gamzee gave his moirail a quizzical look.

“When did I get here?” He asked. His memories were as foggy as shit, and he wasn’t sure how long it had been since whatever was the last thing he… “Wait, how long have I been here?”

Karkat just sighed and papped Gamzee, as if a prepap for whatever he was going to tell him.

“You’ve been higher than the turrets on the castle for the past few weeks, since you decided to surprise me by coming back without fucking telling me anything.” Karkat said, crossing his arms.

Gamzee was silent as he processed what his moirail told him. He didn’t remember taking any slime, but something nagged at the back of his mind.

“So…?” He asked.

“I’ve had to keep you asleep until you got it all out of your system. I am not dealing with your high ass along with John missing.”

“John’s missing?” Gamzee asked, and the nagging in the back of his mind grew louder, but he still couldn’t concentrate on it just yet.

“Yes, you nooksniffer.” Karkat looked resigned, as if he had been repeating himself all day. “He’s been missing for almost as long as you’ve been here high. Longer in fact, if you can actually imagine that.”

Gamzee, if his head wasn’t hurting with the last of the slime, or the loud nagging voice that was at least getting clearer, would have been annoyed at his moirail for making it out like he was dumb.

“Wait… John’s missing? Really? But…” The nagging became clearer and he understood a bit. “I thought I saw him when I got here?”

“You… WHAT?” Gamzee jumped, having forgotten how his moirail loved shouting.

They heard fast footsteps and Gamzee saw two human girls he remembered as Jade and Scary Rose.

“I… I think I remember seeing John somewhere… I was…” Gamzee tried to remember, pushing past the hurt in his head to remember. “I was playing for someone and saw him… And then I was…” He saw the green slime in the bottom of a cup and then everything went fuzzy when he tried to remember anything after that. “I was a stupid motherfucker…”

“YOU SAW JOHN?! WHERE?” Karkat shouted, gripping Gamzee’s arms.

He racked his memory, trying to figure out more before suddenly a face and name popped into his mind and he shuddered.

“A motherfucker called Caliborn.”

There was complete silence before Karkat began really screaming.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Progress! Also, 'scary rose' because yes she can be very scary when she wants to be.  
> I honestly don't know how long this will be. I feel like this might be getting closer to the end, but I don't know yet. Guess we'll play it by ear.


	15. Short Reunion

Waiting for Dave to wake up was just like all those times when they were younger and would stay the night over at the other’s place. John would always wake up first and just kinda sit quietly, or in this case, sit almost quietly and whisper to Jake each other’s sides of the story, and wait for Dave to stir.

“We couldn’t find a single lead for a long time before-” Jake was saying when they heard the groan Dave made as he awoke, rubbing the back of his neck and struggling to sit up, the only thing shown to Jake and John in the darkening room was the glint of his shades.

“Dave?” John questioned quietly. “Are you okay, man?”

“Ugh, my head…” Dave’s words seemed to peter out, and they felt the cot move as the blond turned to John’s voice quickly. “John?”

He smiled, even though he knew his moirail wouldn’t be able to see it. “Uh huh. Can’t really say it’s good to see you again, but, hi.”

A hand smacked John’s shoulder, making him cry out in surprise, before another hand smacked his other shoulder and suddenly he was wrapped in a tight embrace, so tight he could feel Dave shake ever so slightly.

“You mother- You as- John, you fu-” Dave tried to say something, but it was like he had something resetting his words.

“I know, I know. Jake’s been telling me everything that happened on your end.” John hugged Dave just as tightly, feeling soothed as a familiar scent of Dave flooded his nostrils, along with Dave’s not-so-appealing smell of sweat.

“Karkles is going to kill you when he sees you, I hope you realize that.” Dave said.

John chuckled, hoping there will be a time he would get to see Karkat. “I know. Now, before you break my neck, can you loosen up a bit?”

Dave didn’t say anything for a long time, and didn’t move quickly to release John, not that he minded much, but kept a hand tightly grasped around John’s wrist.

“Where are we?” Dave asked after a brief pause.

“We’re somewhere-” Jake started before the three of them heard heavy footfalls that made John’s heart sink to his toes.

They heard the door jingle before opening, flooding the room with the dying light of the sun and the light of a few torches around the hallway, surprising them. John quickly twisted his hand so he was holding onto Dave’s wrist and took Jake’s wrist with his other hand, his instincts telling him something bad was going to happen soon.

They saw a small figure enter first, and then a looming shadow blocking the door.

“Oh, Jake!” They heard Jane cry, and she rushed to Jake, cupping his cheeks and spluttering. “I, I’m so sor-ry, Jake, I ne-I never, I didn’t, Jake, I’m just…”

She didn’t continue as Caliborn entered the room, and with light coming back into the room, they saw a cruel smile on his face. Jane immediately let go of Jake and took a step back, putting her head down as she seemed to try and make herself small.

“What a touching scene, don’t you think, boy?” Caliborn directed his question to John, who kept his gaze down.

He did the wrong thing apparently, because he was soon grabbed by the neck of his shirt and dragged forward, off the bed and off the floor, the only way he wasn’t choking was his hands stretching his shirt as far as he could from his neck.

“Can’t you think, boy?” Caliborn growled.

“Let him go!” John couldn’t tell if he was hopeful or fearful when he heard his moirail come to his aid, because he wasn’t sure if Dave would be any match against the strong lord.

Dave sprung from the bed with a punch that never landed as Caliborn took one glare his way and backhanded him across the face, sending him tumbling to the side.

“You wish to cut short your reunion, then?” Caliborn seemed to sneer down at the knight, who was trying to get up but looked dazed, and to add insult to injury, Caliborn just scoffed and put a foot square between his shoulder blades, pinning him down. “I was going to let you stay with your precious friend for a night, but if you insist on leaving, well…”

“No!” John gasped, having let go of his shirt and reached futilely for Dave on the ground. “Please!”

Caliborn gave an amused look at John before stepping off Dave and promptly dropping John on top of him.

“Fine. But be ready to say goodbye come first light.” The lord said and turned to leave when Jane spoke up quietly.

“My-my lord? Wh-what are you go-going to do to them?” She stuttered softly, her eyes trying to not look at anyone but constantly glancing at Jake with wide-eyed fear.

“Oh, you wouldn’t want me to spoil a good surprise, would you girl? Come here on time tomorrow and you should find out.” Caliborn didn’t turn around to answer the maid and left soon after with a small laugh.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Jane became animate again. She helped John off his moirail first, checking if both were relatively unharmed; wincing at the cut on Dave’s cheek from the ring Caliborn wore that struck him the hardest.

Then she went straight to Jake and wrapped her arms tightly around him, whispering so quietly that John couldn’t hear her, but by Jake’s responses, he guessed she was begging for forgiveness.

“Jane, this wasn’t your doing.” Jake finally said loudly, pulling Jane away from him to pap her. “You’re not to blame for this. At least now I understand why you never liked talking about him.”

“What are we going to do, Jane?” John asked, keeping a firm hand on Dave’s hand, shaking in fear for both himself and his friends.

“I, I don’t know.” Jane looked distressed.

“Maybe Karkat will realize what happened to us and go get help.” Dave spoke up, taking his glasses off to avoid having the frame touch the cut.

“Wait, what about Karkat?” John asked, perking up at his name.

“Well, he did know who we were meeting with, and with us now gone, he must have figured out what might have happened.” Jake answered, absently papping Jane every so often.

John looked concerned out the open door. He so badly wanted to run for it, but what would happen to Jane if he did? He would know everything and hunt them all, even if Jane ran from him.

“I,” John sighed as he turned back to his friends. “I hope so, Jake. I miss Karkat, but, what if he gets caught? What even happens to a troll that gets caught in Caliborn’s house?”

Jane turned pale. “They, ah, don’t leave unharmed, and in most cases, don’t leave alive.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School has now begun again, and so chapters might be a bit sparse until like later April or May. I'm writing a lot of chapters, but I do want to space them out instead of posting them one right after the other.  
> Also, why are StriLondes so hard to figure out how to write what they say?


	16. Horrible Mess

It took the combined strength of Rose, Jade and Gamzee to both restrain Karkat from sprinting to the douchelord Caliborn’s house, and to calm him enough for his reason to slowly return to him.

“We can’t just leave without a plan, Karkat.” Rose insisted. “There is a lot at stake right now, and a xenophobic lord seeing _you,_ a troll, will not help at all.

“But… John!” Karkat struggled to slip from the three. He finally had a solid lead, a promising thing, but the other three were keeping him from his matesprit, keeping him from also possibly his pitchmate, if the idiot had gotten captured for walking into what now felt like a trap.

“Yes, we know, Karkat.” Jade held tightly to Karkat’s wrist with one hand before grabbing his chin and forcing him to look her in the eyes. “He’s my brother, Karkat. I want him back as well. But we need a plan, like Rose said.”

Finally, the fight was out of Karkat, and he slumped, Gamzee taking most of the weight and getting him to sit down.

“Fine. What’s the plan?”

John

The three of them sat in tense silence, each wondering what they could do, and what might happen when dawn came the next morning.

John worried his lip enough to start tasting blood, and for once was happy by the lack of visibility, because Dave would have said something about his bad habit.

“We can’t just lay here and do fuck all to escape.” Dave suddenly said, startling the other two. “There has to be a way we can overcome this bastard, right?”

John doubted they could. Caliborn was strong and merciless. There was no way to reason with the man either, once he had a plan, Jane could testify that.

Thinking about Jane, John began to wonder how she was dealing with everything that was going on.

Jane

Jane stared fearfully at the sight before her, but she couldn’t move as if her body would not listen to her mind.

A familiar bright smile looked back at her, but the eyes betrayed the one she was staring at. They were the look Caliborn had when he had beaten a servant, or when he was torturing his captives.

“Hello, dear.” The troll said, almost skipping up to her until they were practically nose-to-nose, and still Jane couldn’t move. “It’s been a bit, huh? Did you miss me?”

Jane didn’t say a word, or maybe she couldn’t, even if she tried. Aranea’s smile grew.

“You don’t know why I’m here, don’t you?” She asked, finally moving back and suddenly Jane felt her body move to her thoughts as she stumbled back into a wall, far from the troll, but not far enough in the small room she found herself trapped in.

She had been finishing cleaning after the Lord’s orders when she heard the door swing shut and lock, and when she had turned around, the troll was just standing there with a smirk, as if she had just told a joke.

“Well, I’m here to play some games with a couple intelligent little boys on the order of Lord Caliborn.” Aranea said.

Jane’s eyes grew wide and she shook her head, disbelieving the troll’s words. “No, please.” She whispered. “Please don’t do this.”

“Hmm? Oh, no can do, love.” Aranea giggled. “This is too much fun, and the Lord’s giving me a lot of money for this job.

“Now, I just wanted to see you, little maid. You should hurry home now, dear. Your Lord wouldn’t be happy if you stayed any longer, since you’re obviously finished working.” The troll turned and unlocked the door and left.

Jane wanted to run after the troll and stop her, but she didn’t know what she could do against a troll with mind control powers, or even trolls the lord had actually allowed into his house.

Silently, Jane left the lord’s house and ran home with the dying sun nearly gone, the sky a brilliant red-turned-pink. She ran straight into Roxy’s arms, mute to her worrying questions as she failed to contain tears.

She was terrified for Jake, for John, who was most likely going to witness something horrible, and for everybody – including herself – that was involved in this horrible mess.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Didn't mean to bring back the spider troll, but somehow I got sudden inspiration that might make this story a bit longer than I thought it would be, and there was no other way, unless I decided to bring Vriska to life(but I don't think she'd ever listen to Caliborn, so Aranea it was)


	17. Powder and Tears

John watched with horror filled eyes as Jake and Dave were dragged out of the room by the troll girl he thought he would never see again, unable to do a thing as Caliborn was standing right behind the troll.

As soon as they left the room, the lord slammed the door closed. John ran to the door and pulled it with all his strength, but the lock worked and he was again trapped by himself.

John couldn’t understand why this was happening now. The stupid lord said they would be gone at first light, it wasn’t even grey out from the look outside the small window, but then suddenly that troll girl opened the door and seemed to just look at Jake and Dave and they went limp enough for her to drag them by one arm each out the door.

And now he was alone again, in the middle of the night it seemed like, and he didn’t think he was about to sleep anytime soon, fretting over his moirail and Jake. He sunk back onto the bed, drawing up his legs and hugging them tightly to his chest, wishing he had the power to do something, anything.

Jane found him in the morning sleeping in that position and tear streaks down his cheeks, long since dried.

Karkat

Karkat coughed violently as powder was accidently inhaled, making the two who were putting the powder on him jump and swat him to keep still.

“Do you want him to see any of your gray skin?” Jade huffed, a powder puff in one hand, Karkat’s chin in the other.

The two humans were whitening Karkat’s skin to a more human fleshy tone while he played with the wide hat that covered his nubs he called horns.

Gamzee watched with a blank expression, making it hard for Karkat to read his moirail, but he picked up on a few of the purpleblood’s habits to know he was looking at Karkat in a myriad of emotions, ranging from worry to annoyance, but at what, even the hot heated troll couldn’t figure out.

“Why can’t I come, again?” Gamzee asked once the two humans finished with the powder.

“He knows your face, does he not?” Rose asked, turning to him. Karkat saw Gamzee frown.

“So that’s why I can’t go at all?” He asked.

“Gamz, we talked about this many times.” Karkat’s patience was wearing thin, and he just wanted John and Dave safe and sound with him. “This lord Doucheborn knows you, and even if we try the same trick that I’m doing with you, there’d be no way to hide those horns of yours.”

Gamzee sighed with a long breath and nodded. “I know that, motherfucker, I still want to help though.”

“You can help by not giving me any more reason to flip my shit. I want to see you here, in this room, when we return.” Karkat gestured around his room. “If I don’t, I will find you and I will fucking murder you for making me freak the fuck out.”

At that, Gamzee smiled and chuckled at his moirail, but calmed at the deadly look in the shorter troll’s eyes. “I will be here when you come back… Just,” He hesitated. “Come back.”

“Of course I’ll come back.” Karkat said dismissively, though he understood what Gamzee was feeling. He had had the feeling when Dave went to the Douchelord’s. “And I’ll bring back all that had been taken from me.”

He stood up with Jade and Rose, and the three left, Karkat giving a stray look behind him at his moirail one last time, hoping he will see him again after whatever might happen.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its short.


	18. What a Seer Cannot See

As they walked to the Lord’s house, Jade turned to Karkat suddenly.

“To make this more convincing, you’re going to be my handmaiden. And here, this will help keep the makeup look like real human skin colour.” She said, passing a small chain amulet to the troll, looking Karkat up and down quickly.

Karkat was wearing the large hat, as well as a long peasant dress the colour of deerskin, because the hat they were using as part of his disguise was only worn by human women. He put the amulet on, covering the small jewel with the top of the dress, feeling weird as the cool metal rested again his lower chest.

“And that means you don’t speak unless I say you can, okay?” Jade continued, giving the troll a piercing look that allowed no arguments.

That doesn’t mean he didn’t try to argue. “Why can’t I speak whenever? I want to demand he tell us where John and Dave are as soon as we see him.”

“Karkat, we cannot.” Rose spoke up. “We will get nowhere if we go with your approach. We must be clever, and not let him know we know.”

“Do you see anything about what we’re going to do?” Jade asked her, but the Seer shook her head.

“I cannot see what happens as soon as we enter the building, but I do see us leaving without harm, but…” The Seer trailed off.

“But what?” Karkat pressed, ignoring the looks the women gave him.

“It is only us three that leave. I do not see anyone else with us when we leave that building.” Rose said.

Dave

Dave was only dimly aware of what was happening around him, his head feeling like someone was stuffing cotton into his head.

He heard John shouting, but the sound kept getting farther and farther away until he heard nothing at all. He felt like he was being dragged somewhere, but his eyes were closed. Or maybe he had been blinded by something, as he kept thinking he was blinking.

His mouth also felt weird, as if he was chewing something larger than his could handle and whatever it was wrapped around his head, painfully tight against him.

After what felt like a couple days of this (it was only half a day) Dave felt himself again, but he still faced the same problems, only now he understood what was going on.

He was blindfolded, gagged and his arms were bound behind his back, his legs free, but it seemed they were only needed to walk to wherever they were going.

Dave wondered where Jake was, if he was beside him, or if John was nearby.

His thoughts brought a headache as his mind swirled with questions that couldn’t be answered until he was free, but it seemed whoever had him, seemed to have him utterly helpless.

They seemed to walk for hours when finally Dave bumped into someone and his blindfold was taken off, and he grunted at the sudden brightness that assaulted his eyes.

Blinking a couple times, Dave could see enough of the room he was in, and saw the people he was in there with.

Beside him was Jake, who looked just as dazed as Dave felt, and similarly bound and gagged. But in front of the two of them was someone they had never seen before. Dave thought she looked very similar to a girl John had crushed on majorly when they had been younger, before meeting Karkat, but the troll in front of them had shorter hair and seemed more into spiders than the other girl ever had been, as well as much older than the other girl. Not to mention, the girl John had crushed on was dead, had been for about 3 years at least.

“So, I’ve been ordered to keep you two locked away for the next month so you don’t cause the Lord any trouble.” The woman said, a bright, peppy smile on her face that didn’t reach her eyes. They looked dead and angry. “And also to keep that Heir boy from backing out.”

Dave narrowed his eyes, suspicious and just a bit confused by the cryptic message the troll woman was telling them.

_Backing out from what?_

John

It was about afternoon when he heard the familiar footfalls of Jane and the Lord approach his prison.

The door unlocked, and he saw Jane enter, the hulking mass that was the lord blocking the door. John saw her frightened face as she beckoned him to her, reminding John of his late mother when he and Jade had been young children going on walks with her.

John slowly got up, eyes narrowed in wariness as he approached Jane.

“Lo-lord Caliborn wishes to-to go someplace an-and wishes you to acc-accompany him.” Jane said, her voice monotone and but with a hint of fear.

“Where are you taking me? Where are Dave and Jake?” John asked, looking at Jane, but asking the lord behind her.

“Come, and we can talk about it.” Caliborn said, and John imagined a smirk twisting his face.

Before John left the room, a young servant appeared suddenly, looking anxious being in the same hall as Caliborn, and kept her eyes down as she spoke to him.

“Lord, there are some women who have come to speak with you. They say it is urgent. I… I believe one of them is the Seer, Lord.” She said quickly, and John’s heart skipped a beat.

_Seer? Rose!_

Caliborn growled, before pushing both John and Jane into the room and locking the door behind them. “I guess I’ll deal with them quickly, before we leave.”

And then he was gone, and John felt his heart sink into his stomach. _Rose is here. Why is she here? Who is she with?_

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karkat needed to be in a dress. I have nothing more to say on that matter.  
> Also, I have written one of the last scenes in this fic, and boy will you hate me. :3  
> Just have to write everything up to the scene and the final part and then I'll be finished this fic. Yay~


	19. Movement

Karkat and the two women stood in the main hall, looking around themselves and giving each other looks while they waited. Or, rather, the humans kept glancing over at Karkat to make sure he didn’t run in kamikaze and blowing the whole thing up before they got any information.

“Ah, hello, ladies.” They heard a voice greet them warmly, and the three turned around to see a large man.

“Good afternoon, Lord Caliborn.” Rose bowed her head respectfully. “I must apologize for the sudden arrival.”

“It is fine, Lady Rose.” The douchelord smiled warmly, so unlike anything the three had thought he would be like. “And who are your two friends accompanying you?”

“This is Jade Egbert and her handmaiden, Kit. They-”

“I apologize, but I have been a wreck since I found out about my brother’s kidnapping when I was away.” Jade said, somehow making herself come close to tears. Karkat stood close to her, offering a hand as he had seen many handmaidens do to comfort their ladies. “I have simply been beside myself. And when I heard my boyfriend, Dave, had gone to see you, I had to find out where he went.”

“Where he went, Lady?” The douchelord looked genuinely puzzled. “But I had told him all I knew, and sadly it is not much, and sent him and his partner on their way. Why, they’ve been gone for almost a full day now.”

“They have? We have not seen them since the day before when they left.” Rose said, pausing. “Are you certain you saw them leave? Where were they heading?”

“I apologize, my Lady. I do not know.” The lord said, shaking his head. “But if you had not seen either man in a while, then I must worry that they are in _grave danger_.”

Karkat narrowed his eyes and the tone change the lord had done near the end of his sentence. He opened his mouth to say something when Jade leant against him, elbowing him at the same time.

“How can you tell, Lord Caliborn?” Rose asked, her hesitation between words letting Karkat and Jade know she also noticed the change in tone the douche had shown.

“Well, if they had not shown themselves to you, do you not think they might be taken prisoner? It would truly be saddening if something terrible would befall them.” The lord said, shaking his head before clapping his hands together. “Now, you have sadly caught me at a bad time, I am very busy at the moment, and will be fairly busy for a few months. I will let you know if I hear anything more about the boy or the two knights.”

And just like that, the three of them found themselves out of Lord Caliborn’s house, the heavy doors closing loudly in front of them.

“What the absolute fuck?!”

John

John wasn’t sure what happened, as the next few hours seemed to happen in snapshots. He saw himself with Jane in his prison room, then suddenly Caliborn arrives and jerks them both out, then John finds himself bound with only his legs free to walk to a carriage before feeling a pain on his temple and everything went black for an unknown amount of time.

When he came to again, he was sitting beside a scared Jane and across from the two was Lord Caliborn with his familiar cruel smile.

“Sleeping Beauty finally woke up, now?” He mocked, leaning back into his seat.

“Where the hell are you taking me now?” John asked, growing tired of the lord’s attitude.

“To my summer home. It is quite far from home, and perfect to keep a little boy until the wedding.” He replied and both John and Jane snapped their heads straight.

“Wedding?” They both asked in various degrees of incredulousness.

“Yes. In one month, boy, you and I shall wed and I will own everything that belongs to you.” Caliborn said. “If you try anything, I can certainly make things more difficult for your friends that I have as leverage.”

“What have you done with Dave and Jake?” John demanded, hoping his voice wouldn’t shake.

“They are okay, for now. As long as you behave, that is.” Caliborn said with a smirk. “One misbehaviour and you might find a piece of them as a gift.”

John clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. “What do you want me to do?”

He saw from the corner of his eye Jane looking at him with a mix of fear and surprise as Caliborn smiled widely.

“You will find out in due time, boy. We have an entire month, and then the rest of your short life to find out.” He said, and his words sounded like a death sentence.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For some reason, Kitkat was the first name I thought of for a female name for Karkat. Idk man.  
> Also, Caliborn can be gracious, but only when he doesn't see a reason to do anything bad. He thinks the girls don't know anything, and also thinks they'll follow the wild goose chase rather than come back.  
> I hope everything makes sense, and get ready, we're in the final bits.


	20. New Quarters

Lord Caliborn’s summer home was sadly beautiful, looking quite homely and pleasant, a gross façade to what the Lord was actually like.

It was a large property that included a lake, and a small thin trail the carriage followed to get there, and no other peasant or other person within miles.

To John, it seemed like the perfect place for murder.

Caliborn stood in front of Jane and John inside the home, smiling pleasantly, but his eyes told the two his smugness.

“You have free roam here. Provided you are followed by the girl and a guard. I wouldn’t try to escape, you are much too far from anything familiar.” He told them simply. “But you will attend every meal with me, and your room will be right beside me.”

John opened his mouth to protest, but Caliborn glared at him until his words fizzled in his throat.

“I could always make you sleep with me, if you insist.” Caliborn smiled at the open horror the two displayed.

John finally spoke, his head tilted down to not look at him. “The arrangements are fair.”

“Well, I don’t much care for it being fair, I just care that you follow them.” He said and with a wave of his arm, he dismissed the two of them as he went to do whatever.

John looked over at Jane and took her hand, giving it a friendly squeeze in solidarity.

“We can survive this. We’ll be okay.” He promised her.

“I’m not worried about us, John.” Jane replied, bringing their joined hands to her chest, just over her heart. “I’m worried about them. One slip up and who knows what could befall them?”

Jake

Jake had been separated from Dave soon after they had been brought to what seemed to be a spider’s den.

It was a small, circular room that felt like it would look like a raindrop, with a curved trapdoor as the only entrance and exit to the room, locked on the other side, Jake had found out within minutes of being free to do whatever he wanted in the room. There was also a side room that seemed to work as a place for Jake to clean and relieve himself.

Besides the look of the room, it was surprisingly well furnished, with a simple cot, and a table and chair, that for some reason, could not be moved from where they were, even though they did not seem to be attached to anything.

The only downside of the room was there were no windows to see even the time of day, so Jake quickly lost track of time. He did his best by guessing the hours, but he was normally dreadful at telling time even when he was outside on a hunt, so gave up within the second day he had counted.

Jake was jolted out of his thoughts at the sound of the trapdoor opening and his body froze against his will, his mind now feeling the intrusive commands the spider troll, Aranea, gave him.

The troll climbed up with a tray of his food for the day, a couple loaves of bread and a pitcher of water, and smiled smugly when she saw him.

“Just because you can feel me in that little human brain of yours doesn’t really mean anything. It takes decades for a single human to learn how to block a blue blood’s power.” She said as she closed the trapdoor and put the tray on the table.

Normally, Aranea would leave as soon as she brought him his food, but today she seemed in the mood to talk, as she sat on the single chair and Jake heard her whispered commands to his mind to sit on the bed. He sat with a frown.

“I can walk by myself thank you very much.” He grumbled as he sat, crossing his legs on the bed. “It’s not like I have any power here anyway.”

“Hmm, that’s true.” Aranea said thoughtfully and the feeling of her in his head disappeared.

“What do you want?” Jake asked bluntly, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So straightforward.” She smiled, her fangs bared in amusement. “I just wanted to chat about something.”

Jake didn’t reply, just stared the troll down until they started an unsaid staring contest, neither willing to back down.

Aranea was the one to break contact. “How good at fighting is that maid moirail of yours?” She asked suddenly and Jake’s back straightened.

“Why do you ask?” He narrowed his eyes as she laughed.

“Mostly curiosity.” She shrugged. “I also know, from listening to Lord Caliborn, that he plans on doing something to her as soon as the wedding is done. What it is, I’m not sure, so don’t even think about asking, boy, but I’d say it isn’t good.”

Jake was silent for a few seconds, his eyes still narrowed at the spider troll. “Why are you telling me this? Thinking taunting me with my moirail’s life is funny to you?”

“Why would I dare do something as sacrilegious as that? I may a mercenary, but I do have standards.” Aranea sounded deeply offended. “And that would be like someone taunting me that my Meenah’s life was in danger, I would never.”

“So why are you telling me my moirail’s life is in danger?” Jake asked again.

Aranea smiled, although it now looked a little sad. “Because I have a feeling she might not live past the wedding.”

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The scene between Jake and Aranea actually happen a week after being taken. Just a little clarification.  
> Sorry it took so long for me to update, plot bunnies for other fics got in the way, and school... But luckily 'Reading(or Study, depending) Week'/March Break starts this weekend and that means REST and possibly time to WRITE! Yay!  
> I think there is only a couple more chapters for me to finish writing before we get to the end of what I have.


	21. Sleeping arrangements

The first week alone with Lord Caliborn had actually been nice, as John didn’t spend any time, besides meals, in his presence. He spent it with Jane, outside, as she was relieved of maid duty and put on ‘watch John’ duty like a handmaiden would be with a Lady.

They would wander the lake with the ever watchful eyes of the lord’s guards from a small distance, but John enjoyed the freedom and fresh air in his lungs after being stuffed in one room for weeks on end with bare minimum time outside on his own.

At the end of the week, John became bold.

“Sir, if you please, let Jane stay in my room during the night?” He had brought up one lunch slowly.

Caliborn looked at John with a suspicious look. “Why do you require the maid girl?”

John paused, almost about to blurt out the truth, that he wanted her close so she wouldn’t be hurt during the hours they weren’t together. Over the past weeks of being captive, John and Jane had gotten closer as friends, and she had become something like an older sister to him despite the circumstances.

“Well, she reminds me of my sister, and when we were younger, resting in the same room was fun. And well, I’ve been alone to my thoughts a little too much…” John replied after some thought.

Caliborn’s eyes seemed to try to pierce John before looking back at his food. “Fine. The girl can share a room with you.”

During the nights afterwards, John and Jane would lay together and whisper to one another for hours, seeking comfort as they were free from lingering eyes, worrying about their pale mates in who knew where.

“What if we never see Jake or Dave again, John?” Jane asked one night, a week before the arranged marriage would happen. “What if he kills them as soon as he has you legally?”

“I… He can’t.” John said, but even he didn’t believe his own words. “We’ll see them again, Jane. I know we will.”

* * *

 

The next night was hell.

John and Jane had woken up in the early morning like usual, and while Jane went into the kitchen to eat, John went to the dining room and sat on the far side of the table, away from where the lord sat.

Caliborn arrived a couple minutes later with a smile that made John feel dread before he even spoke.

“I have been thinking boy, and have decided upon something.” Caliborn said. “From now on, you will be sleeping in my room. You are to wed me in less than a week, so you might as well get used to it before the wedding night.”

John’s body froze, sharp painful ice replacing his blood. Caliborn left after he said that, taking a roll of bread with him.

John spent the entire day dreading the sun lowering over the horizon as he and Jane futilely wondered what they could do.

Soon, it was approaching dinner and Jane gave John a sad look.

“I’m sorry. There’s nothing we can do.” She said, wrapping John in a hug.

“There… There has to be, Jane. I can’t sleep in the same room as him! There has to be something we can do.” John said desperately, but even he knew it was no use.

John barely paid attention to what happened at dinner, and with dread lacing his veins, he heard Caliborn call for him to join him for bed, and he followed.

So now he found himself standing at one end of the bed in his ill-fitting nightshirt, with Caliborn already in bed with only seeming to be wearing trousers, and John found himself looking at too much of the lord’s skin.

“Get in, boy.” Caliborn said in a low voice, his eyes staring holes into John until he slowly crawled into the bed.

As soon as he got under the covers, Caliborn wrapped an arm around John, and he forgot how to breathe. He gave a small gasp when the lord pulled him towards him, eyes wide as his back met the lord’s chest and he finally began to squirm, desperate to get away, but the hold on him was tight and slowly tightening with every struggle, until he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

They stayed that way for the entire night, the lord falling asleep easily, but his grip did not loosen a bit. John tried to sleep a little bit, hoping to escape his predicament in dreams, but he slept fitfully, waking up before he could fully fall asleep.

The next morning John felt like he barely slept a wink, if the beginnings of bags under his eyes were any indication.

The lord woke up and John stiffened when he leant over to his ear, morning breath uncomfortably tickling his ear.

“Good morning, boy.” His voice went husky with just waking up and John shivered. He jumped when Caliborn seemed to caress his cheek, pulling his face towards him.

Caliborn looked at him with half lidded eyes, a smirk on his face. “You will definitely make a good husband, boy. So obedient.” A rough thumb rubbed John’s cheek and he closed his eyes tightly.

So this sleeping arrangement was kept for the rest of the week, and John only finally got a peaceful rest by Caliborn the day before the wedding. Every night he was pushed flush against the lord until he had no escape, and every day he spent every moment he could with Jane.

Finally, the day of the wedding came, along with John’s heart sinking past his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really proud of this chapter, but I couldn't figure out how to tie this with the next chapter, which I've been waiting to post for a long time now. Just 2 more chapters and then an epilogue. Be prepared~


	22. The Wedding

John thought for sure he was going to be tied up as he would walk down the aisle, but it seemed Caliborn thought he had John nice and tied metaphorically. He couldn’t run or say anything other than what was required, upon pain of his friends, and Dave, being harmed.

Jane entered the room John was supposed to wait in with a frown on her face.

“I’m very sorry, John. I wish I could do something.” She said as she adjusted and straightened his wedding attire. “This feels like a nightmare.”

“I just have to hope someone else can stop it. I’m useless as I am now.” He shrugged, a glum look as he felt himself accept his fate.

He didn’t notice Jane’s look, and then there was silence between them, each thinking the same thing, but different scenarios. John thought of how he was going to marry the horrible lord and worried what would happen to him when he did, while Jane thought something else entirely.

Soon, the wedding was beginning, and Jane led John out to the back of the church, where they saw the procession that would precede his entrance already going through the doors.

John, afterwards, could never remember what happened during most of the ceremony, as he was not allowed to speak until it was time to say “I swear, I do.”

Finally, he heard the clergyman ask if “Lord Caliborn would take Duke John Egbert, in sickness and in health, til death do they part” and he snapped back to the present, feeling sick at the predatory look Caliborn gave him as he answered.

“Til death, I swear I do.”

The words were repeated to John. “Duke John, would you have Lord Caliborn, in sickness and in health, til death do you part?”

“I swear, I-” John began when a voice and movement interrupted him.

“No!” Jane cried, stepping in front of John like a mother protecting her young. “I will not allow you to marry him against his will.”

Caliborn looked amused and John saw Jane tremble.

“You will not allow me?” Caliborn asked. “I’m sorry, where has your sense gone, _maid?”_

“I am no longer afraid of you.” Jane said, but both could tell she was lying as she shook. “You have done enough harm by kidnapping his friends, and worse his moirail, to keep him quiet.”

Caliborn was beginning to look annoyed as muttering started throughout the church and he took a step towards Jane and John. “I can still kill them, you stupid girl.” He spoke low enough only the two heard him, and John’s blood froze, but he still didn’t speak.

“No. You’ll never harm anyone again.” Jane said with barely a tremble in her voice. “I told the Duke, I told the Prince, of everything. You will not get away with this any longer.”

At the mention of the Prince, Caliborn’s face transformed from annoyance to downright predatory. He took another step towards the two, well within arm’s reach, and stared them down.

John’s eyes widened as he suddenly saw a smirk begin to form on Caliborn’s face, and a dark chuckle seemed to escape his lips, shutting up the entire church as they watched him warily.

“I knew you were going to be a fun maid.” Caliborn said. “So sure you could save everyone without thinking of your own consequences.”

Before anyone could blink, Caliborn lunged forward and grabbed Jane’s head, spun her around so John could see her face, her suddenly terrified face, before whipping her head so fast, John could hear a snap of bones, a cut off cry, and her neck was suddenly at an angle that should not be possible, and then Jane fell limp.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have I ever said I'm so happy that you all read this?


	23. Chaos

Many things happened in sequence at that moment.

First, Caliborn dropped the now lifeless corpse to the ground, an annoyed smile twisting his face. Second, the doors to the church burst open, and a mob of John’s father’s people stormed into the church, anger written on their faces, and if John had been looking, he would have seen Dave, Jake and Karkat wielding swords, as if to come to John’s rescue.

The final thing that happened, was two simultaneous screams that rang throughout the church on either side of the building.

John was the first to scream, his eyes wide with horror as he watched his confidant, the woman who he began to see as an older sister, who both felt a strong desire to protect, fell now lifeless, on the floor, sounding like a sack of potatoes being dropped.

The second scream was just as horrorstruck as John’s had been, but it was filled with the pain of watching a lover, a friend, a matesprit, die in front of them.

“JANE!”

The entire room seemed to freeze as they heard Roxy scream, her hands clasping her stomach and mouth as if sick, but her eyes, wide in disbelief and utter horror, never left Jane’s corpse.

Suddenly, her eyes snapped to the murderer, red-rimmed and righteously furious as a hand went to her pocket and she withdrew a dagger.

“You killed her.” Roxy said, her voice raspy after her scream wrecked it, but it was still firm, and had a deadly weight attached to it as she approached the front of the church. “You killed Jane. You killed her!”

Her voice rose with every syllable she spoke, and when she was halfway towards where John and Caliborn stood, she rushed him, desperation and rage flowing down her cheeks as tears fell.

Caliborn looked smug, but when he did nothing as Roxy approached closer, John saw his arm twitch but not move, and he saw Caliborn’s face fall in confusion.

It did not stay confused for long, as Roxy reached the lord, and with all her focused rage and sorrow, she thrust her dagger right through Caliborn’s chest, her face suddenly a mask as tears continued to fall.

“Burn in Hell.” She growled, twisting the dagger before ripping it out of his chest, blood spurting onto her as she stepped back.

Jake suddenly appeared behind Roxy with his short sword held in his hand, but he didn’t use it on the lord. He didn’t need to. He kicked the lord in the gut, making him fall over, a grim smile of satisfaction appearing for a split second before his eyes landed on Jane’s body. He stiffened and had to close his eyes, and John could tell he was trying not to break down at the sight of his moirail’s body.

 _Finally, someone did the bastard in._ John heard a female’s voice cry happily in his head. _That’s what he gets for murdering my little Vriska._

John turned to see Aranea smirking down at the large body of the lord Caliborn, choking on his own blood, before she looked up and met John’s eyes.

 _No one gets away with murdering my family._ Was all she said in his head before she seemed to disappear into the chaos.

Chapter done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is the epilogue!


	24. Epilogue

“Come on, John, we don’t have all day, you know!” John smiled slightly as he picked up his pace on the trail to catch up to his moirail.

“Sorry, Dave.” He said simply once he caught up, linking his arm with Dave’s as they continued their walk.

They soon reached the clearing, where all their friends and relations stood waiting for them, all wearing the colours of mourning. John saw Jake and Roxy on either side of Prince Dirk, who had his arms wrapped tightly around both in comfort. His sister, Jade, and Karkat stood by Gamzee and Rose and Kanaya, a couple feet away from the older humans respectfully.

Dave pulled John along until they reached Jade and Karkat, and broke away to stand beside their matesprits, Karkat wrapping his arms around John possessively, something he had been doing since the almost wedding.

The small crowd of people gathered around the clearing, where a mound stood, with a finely made tombstone John believed Dirk had arranged for.

The first to speak was Jake. “Has it really been a year?” His voice was shaky, eyes gliding over everyone present until they landed on John, before quickly looking down at the tombstone.

Roxy gave a pained noise and Dirk just tightened his hold on her, rubbing her arm.

John still felt terrible for what happened, as if it had been his fault Jane had been killed. He blamed himself, because she was just trying to protect him from her master, and it ended with him living and her dying, hopefully painlessly.

“We should…” Jade started, looking sadly around the crowd. “We should say something, shouldn’t we? Maybe just say the good things about her?”

There was silence as each person paused to think about what they remembered about her. It was Gamzee that broke the silence.

“She seemed like a nice lady. I don’t remember much about meeting her, but she always seemed so motherfucking nice, you know?” He said, eyes downcast to the grave.

“She was fantastic.” Jade picked up from the silence. “I only met her once or twice when I would visit Dave, but she was always so cheerful.”

“She was brave.” Karkat said slowly, as though picking his words. “Even though she lied to us, she must have been very brave. She couldn’t protect all of us, so she had to choose how to protect everyone as best she could. While I’m fucking furious she lied to us at the beginning, knowing what I know now, I can’t stay mad. She saved John.” He looked up at John before returning his gaze to the mound. “And that’s something I thought I wouldn’t even be able to do.”

“She was more than brave.” Jake piped in. “She was funny, and courageous, and annoying.” He chuckled, but John saw his eyes shine with yet-to-fall tears. “She was the best moirail I ever had. Will ever have, I know that for sure.”

It looked like Jake wanted to keep speaking, but the tears that had only seemed to threaten to fall had started falling silently, and his words choked on tears. Dirk leant his head on Jake’s shoulder, the best he could do as he tried to comfort both his moirail and his matesprit.

The others spoke up about how they knew Jane, and the vague memories they had, until only Dirk, Roxy and John had yet to speak.

“She was the reason I met Roxy.” Dirk spoke up, his eyes sad as he huddled Roxy and Jake even closer to him. “She was always a good friend, even when we had that small fight years ago about Jake.” The hunter snapped his head up quizzically and Dirk chuckled. “This was when we weren’t dating yet. We both really liked you in a more romantic way, but she saw herself slowly falling pale for you before the fight for your red affections could even happen.”

He cleared his throat, and John thought the Prince was close to letting tears slip, but the Prince schooled his emotions.

“There are so many memories with her that I’ll never forget. She was the first commoner, besides Roxy, who didn’t put up with any of my Princely bullshit.” He chuckled again. “She was a good friend anyone would envy to have.”

There was a long silence as it was down to Roxy and John to speak, and John opened his mouth to speak when Roxy beat him to it.

“She…” Roxy had to clear her throat several times before she could get another word out. “She was amazing. She held my heart with such care. She was the one who introduced me to Dirk. She was… was my first kiss, my first mate. She was gentle, brave, stubborn, the best cook I ever had the pleasure to meet, and she still has my heart.” Tears slipped down her cheeks unnoticed as she continued to speak about Jane, the pain in her voice still fresh after a year of getting to grips over her death.

After a few minutes of silence after Roxy spoke, John finally opened his mouth again to speak.

“Jane was cool, and brave. I would, if I ever had to do that again, would have done the exact same thing I did. We protected each other the best we could in that place. She was the only person I could talk to for months that I wanted to talk to.” John lowered his head until all he could see were everyone’s shoes and the bottom of the tombstone. “I don’t think I would have been able to survive for half as long as I did without Jane. She saved my life more times than I can count, and I…” His hands curled into fists. “I couldn’t even save her once. I wish I could go back and save her, but I can’t. She’s gone because of me, and I’m…” He glanced up towards the Prince and his quadrant mates. “I’m sorry.”

There was heavy silence as John looked guiltily at Roxy, Jake, and Dirk, and flinched when Roxy suddenly leapt away from Dirk towards him. He shut his eyes when the woman was right in front of him, before jumping in surprise when she wrapped her arms tightly around him.

“She knew what she was doing.” Roxy whispered, so only John could hear her. “She always knew she was going to die by his hand. She told me as much whenever we went on to talk about her work. I just always thought we could find another way, but she knew differently. I guess I’m just happy she saved someone before her death. Don’t… Don’t beat yourself up about it, okay?”

John only nodded once, a slight tilt of his head, really, but Roxy understood and she let go, retreating right back to Dirk.

John wasn’t sure what happened after, but before he knew it, everyone was beginning to leave Jane’s grave, their heads bowed in respect as they returned down the path from the clearing.

“You okay?” John jumped when Karkat spoke.

He nodded, wiping the beginnings of tears before they fell. “Yeah, yeah. I guess.”

“Well, come on then. Your father said you were to learn how to fire a bow today.” His mate said, offering her hand to John, and he took it gratefully. “So you’re going to be really fucking tired by the end of it.”

John nodded and glanced back once more at the grave, and for a second thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Floating just above the grave, a ghostly blue hue making her opaque, was Jane, and she waved with a warm smile on her face. The wind picked up just as John thought he saw her open her mouth to speak, and both he and Karkat stopped walking as they heard the wind speak.

_“Thank you.”_

Story done!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finally, that is the end of The Inheritance of an Heir. Hoo boy, this was a doozy to write. Jane's death actually made me both really happy and really sad, since it was my first try at killing one of the good guys. I hoped that death was written well?  
> I hope you all enjoyed this fic, and please let me know if you did, and even if you didn't, maybe critique why?


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